Employees or business partners of an organization may have crucial information about fraud, misconduct, violation of policies, etc. Whistle-blowing services enable them to convey this information to the appropriate authority in the organization. This demonstrates that the organization is serious about uncovering fraud or misconduct and provides highest level of anonymity at a low cost. It helps in improving the overall control environment of the organization.

Whistle-blowing mechanism: How it helps in managing risk of fraud, bribery and corruption in the organization?

Organizations are realizing the importance of whistle-blowing mechanisms. 

Operated by professional service providers, companies are using these as an effective and potent tool for uncovering misconduct and fraudulent activity. This has been particularly beneficial for multinational organizations with geographically diverse operations and several business units/ subsidiaries and joint ventures.

Investing in another’s business is fraught with varied risks. For an investor the risk does not manifest itself at the time of a “to go/not to go” decision, but also at different stages after that. Though there cannot be any one solution to this, in our experience of fraud investigation, we have seen that an effective whistle-blowing mechanism facilitates in identifying fraud and other risks pro-actively.

With a whistle-blowing mechanism in operation, the employees of the investee company can become eyes and ears for the investors.

How we can help?

Ernst & Young works together with a third party service providers, which are professional services organization specialized in whistle-blowing services. The third party service provider operates the hotline from a technical standpoint and works together with Ernst & Young in the implementation phase

A whistle-blowing mechanism operated by independent professional service providers offers additional benefits:

• Ensure anonymity of the whistle-blower
• Adheres to privacy and data protections laws
• Offers 24/7, multi-lingual hotlines/channels of reporting
• Facilitates sharing of best practices

For more details download our brochure.