No government protection for NFC 'whistleblowers'

The goverment will not protect ‘whistleblowers’ who provided information on the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) scandal under the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010 as they had breached the law when they announced their findings in public.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz told the Dewan Rakyat that the Act was based on the element of secrecy which according to him was not abided by those who exposed the scandal.

He said those who exposed the NFC case were more of trumpet blowers instead of whistleblowers and the government only gives protection to whistleblowers.

Nazri said the Act was created to battle corruption and other misconducts in the public and private sectors by making it easy for people to lodge reports without exposing their identities.

"If the person goes around the world to blow his trumpet and everyone knows him, what protection can we give?" said Nazri during a question and answer session at Dewan Rakyat today.

Nazri was adressing a question by Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim (PKR-Bandar Tun Razak) who asked what were the original goals of the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010 and to what extent the Government can assess the effectiveness pertaining to the authenticity of the information given.

According to Nazri, since the Act came to power in December 2010, a total of 12,086 reports on misconduct have been recorded by seven enforcement agencies including the police, Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission, Customs Department, Immigration Department, Road Transport Department, Securities Commission and the Companies Commission of Malaysia.

“Based on the statistics, people are becoming more confident by stepping forward to assist the enforcement agencies to conduct their investigation towards misconducts in the public and private sectors by providing information."

Nazri added that so far 101 whistleblowers are being protected under the Act.