There are legal protections for whistle blowers but it's still a tough gig.
It takes a lot of guts to be able to stand up at your place of
work and make a call that something's not quite right. For most people,
it's a seriously career-limiting move. But not for Sylvain Mansotte,
CEO of Fraudsec, an app that lets staff report internal fraud
anonymously.
Sylvain's is an example of how to make lemonade when faced with a great big case of lemons. In 2013 he uncovered a scam at Leighton's,
mere weeks after joining its procurement team. Damian O'Carrigan, who
was formerly a senior finance manager, had been illegally making
payments totalling $20.7 million across a decade, spending the money on
racehorses, escorts and properties.
Sylvain's experience led him
to found Fraudsec. So I spoke to him about what you should do if you
find yourself in a similar situation to the one he was in at Leightons.
His advice is to gather all the evidence and check it twice to ensure
you know exactly what you're talking about.
"Look for an independent and anonymous whistle-blower reporting channel in your organization," is his advice.
