The
other weekend I attended a retreat at Ampleforth Abbey, the
Benedictine monastery near York, on the subject of ‘whistleblowers’.
The idea came from Ian Foxley and Paul Moore.
Ian
Foxley is a retired lieutenant colonel who was appointed by the MoD
in 2010 to oversee a £2bn military communications project in Saudi
Arabia. He had to flee after uncovering bribes paid to Saudi
officials. Paul Moore was working at HBOS in 2004 as Head of Risk
when he was dismissed for exposing their banking practices.
These
two were joined by others from the NHS, the police, academic and
legal worlds as well as business and banking. All of them had
reported on wrongdoing in their workplace, only to find themselves
bullied, shamed, then sacked. All had experienced havoc with their
lives and serious mental distress
My
own experience was as a trustee of War Child at the time when David
Wilson ‘blew the whistle’. My fellow-trustees' reaction was the
same as the MoD with Foxley and HBOS with Moore; ‘shoot the
messenger'. David was sacked. I had no choice but to resign.
The
Charity Commission acted in much the same way as the banks and other
big organisations when faced with a whistleblower…rather than face
the truth of the allegations, the issues are ignored and the ‘unruly
element’ treated as toxic waste.
The
Commission appointed a quorum of ‘professional trustees’ who had
no real knowledge of the workings of this charity and its history and
very little experience in charity work at all. There was no
investigation despite questions in Parliament, Guardian editorials
and the resignation of Pavarotti and the other patrons.
The
charity survived the scandal but never returned to being the
cutting-edge provider of essential services that it had been during
the Bosnian war.
Everyone
who came to Ampleforth had suffered mental health problems, financial
disaster and exclusion from a further career in their area of
professional competence. You will have to read 'Left Field' to find
out what happened to David Wilson.
Whistleblowing
is honest dissent not disloyal subversion, and should always be
supported and applauded.
Ian
Foxley has formed a support group at:
www.wbuk.org
and
read David's book
http://unbound.co.uk/books/left-field
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