I am not sure what to think of Grassley's seeming attack on Lightsquared and what looks like siding with good ol boys Verizon, AT&;T, Clearwire, Deere and Company.. thing is, this Calling out the FDA, calling out a government agency for retaliation against Whistleblower's is indeed something to be respected, commended.
I often ask the same question, as in the SEC, the Department of Justice, the FBI, Corrupt Montana Courts, Corruption in the Supreme Court, Corrupt Judges and other Government Agencies, indeed "Who authorized the monitoring of the whistleblowers" and who gives the orders to retaliate against a whistle blower?
"Grassley probes FDA over whistleblower retaliation
By Julian Pecquet - 02/02/12 12:31 PM ET
The senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee is demanding answers from the Obama administration over the Food and Drug Administration's retaliation against whistleblowers who contacted his office.
Six current and former FDA employees sued the government last week alleging that the agency pried into their personal email accounts and retaliated against them after they shared with Congress concerns about the approval process for medical devices.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), a longtime champion of whistleblower rights, on Thursday released a letter that warns that FDA officials could be breaking the law by retaliating against the whistleblowers, at least one of whom was fired.
"It is troubling to me to see your Agency actively pursue the dismissal of an employee … not because they violated procedure and leaked genuinely confidential classified information, but simply because you 'cannot trust him'," Grassley wrote to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg. "During your confirmation hearing in the Senate in 2009 you stated, 'I think whistleblowers serve a very important role in government in surfacing critical issues and concerns and making sure they're addressed. As leader of the FDA, I would very much want to create a culture that enables all voices to be heard'"
Source and Full Article
http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/medical-devices-and-prescription-drug-policy-/208287-grassley-probes-fda-over-whistleblower-retaliation
As with the Peter Sivere Story, and so many others I hear of where whistleblowers are retaliated against by governement agencies, this is a major statement and a win for whistleblowers everywhere.
Showing posts with label Whistleblower Protection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Whistleblower Protection. Show all posts
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Monday, March 22, 2010
At SEC, the system can be deaf to whistleblowing - Is the SEC Listening to WHAT will Cost Shareholder Billions?
"" By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, January 21, 2010
Eric Kolchinsky was an executive at Moody's, the credit rating company, when he called a top official at the Securities and Exchange Commission in September to warn that his firm might be violating securities law.
He reported that Moody's was blessing mortgage-backed investments that it knew were dangerous, according to a person familiar with the conversation. The SEC official assured Kolchinsky that someone from the agency would call him back shortly.
But the call never came, Kolchinsky later told congressional investigators who were examining how the credit rating industry's failures contributed to the financial crisis. He had gone to Congress after losing patience with the SEC.
Kolchinsky is one in a series of whistleblowers who in recent years tried to tip off the SEC to potential wrongdoing, only to be ignored, misunderstood or left to wonder whether they were being listened to. The SEC has no system in place to guide how officials should handle tips and complaints from outsiders, making it difficult for investigators to take advantage of an invaluable source of information.
This failure helped to continue two of the most celebrated frauds of the last decade for several years, potentially costing unwitting investors millions of dollars. Countless others may have been left vulnerable to shysters because of warnings that went unheeded.
Since SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro took office last year, she has said that fixing the holes in the process for handling tips and complaints has been a top priority. But improving the way hundreds of thousands of tips are analyzed and pursued has proven difficult.
The SEC's enforcement division got back in touch with Kolchinsky about his allegations only after he told the story publicly to a congressional committee last fall, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The SEC said it responded to Kolchinsky's concerns but declined to provide details or to say how fast it did so. Moody's said it examined his allegations and found nothing improper.
The SEC has a haphazard, decentralized system for analyzing outsider information. Tips arrive by phone, mail and e-mail to officials throughout the agency -- investor education to enforcement divisions.
A study commissioned by the SEC last year and conducted by Mitre, a nonprofit group that does research for the federal government, found that the SEC lacks technology to analyze tips and complaints, as well as cohesive policies for what officials should do when they get information.
Whistleblower complaints are one of the main ways that investigators should be tipped to wrongdoing, SEC officials say, along with inconsistencies in financial filings and alerts from financial exchanges about suspicious trading patterns. But the SEC lags behind some other federal agencies in handling tips.
The Internal Revenue Service, for instance, pays reward money to whistleblowers who provide credible information about tax fraud. The Federal Trade Commission has set up a call center for tips and complaints.
On top of structural problems at the SEC, agency officials individually made mistakes in handling several recent cases, sometimes violating agency rules.
Members of Schapiro's management team said they recognized problems with the system for handling whistleblowers shortly after taking over.
"There was no uniformity to it. Every division and office had its own system of recording, tracking or handling tips and complaints. That system was pretty rudimentary," said Steve Cohen, the official tasked by Schapiro to overhaul the agency's tips, complaints and whistleblower program. "We're already working to acquire and deploy technology that centralizes all of the agency's tips and complaints so they can be sorted, reviewed, analyzed and tracked." "
Full Article and Source
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/20/AR2010012005125.html
Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, January 21, 2010
Eric Kolchinsky was an executive at Moody's, the credit rating company, when he called a top official at the Securities and Exchange Commission in September to warn that his firm might be violating securities law.
He reported that Moody's was blessing mortgage-backed investments that it knew were dangerous, according to a person familiar with the conversation. The SEC official assured Kolchinsky that someone from the agency would call him back shortly.
But the call never came, Kolchinsky later told congressional investigators who were examining how the credit rating industry's failures contributed to the financial crisis. He had gone to Congress after losing patience with the SEC.
Kolchinsky is one in a series of whistleblowers who in recent years tried to tip off the SEC to potential wrongdoing, only to be ignored, misunderstood or left to wonder whether they were being listened to. The SEC has no system in place to guide how officials should handle tips and complaints from outsiders, making it difficult for investigators to take advantage of an invaluable source of information.
This failure helped to continue two of the most celebrated frauds of the last decade for several years, potentially costing unwitting investors millions of dollars. Countless others may have been left vulnerable to shysters because of warnings that went unheeded.
Since SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro took office last year, she has said that fixing the holes in the process for handling tips and complaints has been a top priority. But improving the way hundreds of thousands of tips are analyzed and pursued has proven difficult.
The SEC's enforcement division got back in touch with Kolchinsky about his allegations only after he told the story publicly to a congressional committee last fall, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The SEC said it responded to Kolchinsky's concerns but declined to provide details or to say how fast it did so. Moody's said it examined his allegations and found nothing improper.
The SEC has a haphazard, decentralized system for analyzing outsider information. Tips arrive by phone, mail and e-mail to officials throughout the agency -- investor education to enforcement divisions.
A study commissioned by the SEC last year and conducted by Mitre, a nonprofit group that does research for the federal government, found that the SEC lacks technology to analyze tips and complaints, as well as cohesive policies for what officials should do when they get information.
Whistleblower complaints are one of the main ways that investigators should be tipped to wrongdoing, SEC officials say, along with inconsistencies in financial filings and alerts from financial exchanges about suspicious trading patterns. But the SEC lags behind some other federal agencies in handling tips.
The Internal Revenue Service, for instance, pays reward money to whistleblowers who provide credible information about tax fraud. The Federal Trade Commission has set up a call center for tips and complaints.
On top of structural problems at the SEC, agency officials individually made mistakes in handling several recent cases, sometimes violating agency rules.
Members of Schapiro's management team said they recognized problems with the system for handling whistleblowers shortly after taking over.
"There was no uniformity to it. Every division and office had its own system of recording, tracking or handling tips and complaints. That system was pretty rudimentary," said Steve Cohen, the official tasked by Schapiro to overhaul the agency's tips, complaints and whistleblower program. "We're already working to acquire and deploy technology that centralizes all of the agency's tips and complaints so they can be sorted, reviewed, analyzed and tracked." "
Full Article and Source
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/20/AR2010012005125.html
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