Tip Sheet: Whistleblower Provision of Dodd-Frank

Given the recent one-year anniversary of Dodd-Frank, Ernst & Young LLP’s Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services practice created 10 tips to address the whistleblower provisions included in the legislation. The tips are designed to help company boards and senior management meet the challenges of the whistleblower provisions included in the Dodd-Frank legislation.

1. Consider the situation through the eyes of employees.
   1. Assess whether employees trust the company, its management and the internal reporting system.
   2. Consider the informal communication methods and culture of the company.
   3. Allow whistleblowers to track the progress of cases that are reported in a public manner.
   4. Educate employees regarding the types of tips and complaints the company considers significant.
2. Strengthen the tone at the top and at all levels of management.
   1. Invest in improving the company’s culture, values, ethics and integrity
   2. Evaluate the company’s ethics and compliance messaging across business units, functions and geographies.
   3. Align the company’s principles with the company’s daily operations and communications.
3. Reassure employees that retaliation will not be tolerated through protections when internal reporting mechanisms are used.
4. Mitigate direct and indirect retaliation among coworkers through an understanding of informal peer groups within the company.
5. Create an internal ethics committee that includes front line employees from across the company’s business units.
6. Make ethics and element of each executive’s and manager’s performance review.
   1. Require that ethics metrics be met before executives and managers are eligible for maximum financial or other incentives.
7. Strengthen the transparency of the company’s financial reporting and disclosure practices.
8. Re-evaluate the effectiveness of the company’s existing fraud detection processes.
9. Have a process and software in place to capture, store and afford protection to incident information covering a wide area including hotline tips, potential fraud and abuse occurrences, audit findings, legal cases and workplace accidents.
10. Prepare in advance by implementing policies and procedures that will enable the company to move swiftly and effectively to assess whistleblower claims while managing litigation costs.