Does legitimacy matter in whistleblowing intentions?
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Date
2018
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Publisher
International Journal of Law and Management
Abstract
Despite the introduction of Whistleblowers Act in 2010 to create an enabling environment
for Ugandan citizens to freely disclose information on unethical practices or improper
conduct in the public and private sectors, the percentage of people reporting unethical
practices continue to be small. The Afro Barometer survey of 2015 reveals that out of the
2400 respondents surveyed in the public sector, only 6% reported unethical incidents in the
public sector to government officials or people in authority while the remaining 94%
remained morally mute. This is consistent with the results of the Economic Policy Research
Center (2009) which rated Uganda low on the reporting of unethical practices. This finding is
corroborated by the Inspectorate of Government which reports having received only 1,000
complaints from the public in 2014 (The Observer, 2014). These revelations could be
attributed to legitimacy challenges which often result in retaliatory actions such as firing,
blacklisting, threats, harassment, physical violence and verbal abuse, transfer, dismissal and
humiliation of whistleblowers. There are a number of reports which support retaliatory
practices in public procurement. According to “The 3rd Public Procurement Integrity Survey
Report of (2016), 9.9% of the respondents indicated that they chose to keep quiet about the
misdeeds of the public officials because of fear of victimization as the wrongdoers command
high social status in the public sector. Cases supporting this conduct include; a whistleblower
who lost his job in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) after reporting a procurement
related scam. The identity of the whistleblower was revealed resulting in malice and personal
vendetta.
Description
Keywords
Legitimacy matter, Whistleblowing intentions
Citation
Musa Mbago, Joseph Ntayi, Henry Mutebi, "Does legitimacy matter in whistleblowing intentions?", International Journal of Law and Management, https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLMA-02-2017-0017