Massy VP: Create whistleblower safe space

MASSY Group senior VP and general counsel Angélique Parisot-Potter has urged companies to create a safe space before issues escalate.

She was speaking today at the Silence is not Golden whistleblower event at the Chamber of Commerce, Westmoorings.

She noted last month the Whistleblower Protection Bill was debated and the objective is to combat corruption and other wrongdoings by encouraging and facilitating disclosures of improper conduct in both the public and private sectors.

"The bill is not yet law. We do not know when it will become law. But unless we as the private sector get on board and create environments where people speak up before matters become dangerous for them, we would be in trouble. But if we start now we mitigate against the chance of experiencing the sort of corporate misconduct and truly awful collapses that we have been witness to on the international stage­: Volkswagen, Boeing, Carillion."

She said the private sector needed to put in place "systems that allow issues to be raised internally, address those issues quickly, tell ourselves look within and have an opportunity to address issues before things become a public reputational nightmare.

"If we enable safe spaces and empower people to speak up this would only redound to the benefit of society, our businesses and our people."

Parisot-Potter said the TT Transparency Institute and the National Advisory Group, on which she sits as the Chamber's and Massy's representative, recently prepared TT's business integrity country agenda to show what the business sector, private sector and stakeholders need to do to reduce corruption within business and by business.

She reported Massy has implemented a business integrity framework including a "speak up policy," which whistleblower legislation will require once it is law, as well as a code of ethics and conduct and an independent third-party hotline where people can raise issues anonymously.

She recalled the report launched earlier this year and noted that, in addition to things known negatively to affect the economy such as depressed energy prices, gross official reserves falling and public-sector debt rising, the country faces similarly critical and urgent challenges of corruption and corporate wrongdoing.