j Meet Rosemary Rogers. For nearly a decade she served as
chief of staff to multiple executives at National Australia Bank
(NAB), and in that time Rogers lived in the lap of luxury.
A jaw-dropping amount of money was spent on holidays,
parties, properties, private jets and helicopters. It’s been
reported that one of Rogers’s holidays to the US racked
up a $485,000 tab, and over $70,000 was dropped on a
no-expense-spared birthday party for her friends and
family. But in early 2018, Rogers’s high-life came to an
abrupt end. A whistleblower at NAB alleged that Rogers was
conspiring with executive events company, Human Group,
to defraud the bank out of millions of dollars.
Police claim that Rogers approved inflated invoices
for Human Group’s services and in return she reportedly
received kickbacks totalling $5.4 million. Rogers has been
charged with over 56 counts of ‘being an agent corruptly
receiving benefit’ and ‘dishonestly obtaining financial
advantage by deception’, or in layman’s terms—bribery.
If proven to be true, and if Rogers is convicted, NAB’s
internal watchdog and management may have all failed to
detect or stop her alleged fraudulent behaviour. This story
demonstrates just how important a whistleblower can be,
and why every organisation should have appropriate policy
in place to protect them.
Why blow the whistle?
Whistleblowing is an insurance policy, and the last line
of defence against criminal behaviour. But the real value
in whistleblowing is not what it produces, but what it
prevents. Whistleblowing can be twice as effective as any
other method of fraud detection, in fact, 40 percent of cases
are brought to light by whistleblowers.
In Australia fraud costs $8.5 billion a year and organisations
typically lose five percent of their annual revenue as a
result. ‘Business insiders’ commit a majority of the crimes
and on average it can take 18 months to detect and stop the
wrongdoing. If a whistleblower takes action, organisations
can potentially avoid an immense financial loss.
Despite the positives, whistleblowers are often seen as
‘snitches’. Blowing the whistle—particularly in high-profile
cases—can come at a huge personal cost. Employees who
speak up are at risk of retribution and put their careers,
financial security, friendships and freedom on the line.
HR expert and author, Karen Gately says, “treating
whistle blowers as ‘trouble makers’ is an all too common
attitude taken by people who would rather be free to
act without consequences. Courageous organisations
acknowledge their short comings and sincerely value the
role whistleblowers play.”
Recently an Australian law passed that requires listed and
larger companies to have a whistleblower protection policy
in place by late 2019. Organisations are now obliged to give
whistleblowers safe and anonymous channels to speak up. If
the protections are breached there are heavy consequences,
including jail time.
Best practice
It’s all well and good to have an open and honest workplace,
but sensitive complaints (like the one made by the NAB
whistleblower in the Rogers case) require discretion. Good
whistleblower policy should encourage employees to speak
20 Chief of Staff | Issue 2 2019
up on sensitive matters without fear of reprisals.
Now there’s legislation in place that compels companies
to draft policy, it’s important to understand what best
practice looks like. Nathan Luker, CEO of external
whistleblowing service YourCall, gave us his perspective.
“Organisations need to act and allocate internal resources
to construct whistleblowing policy,” Nathan explains.
Correct whistleblowing policy should cover a few
fundamental points. Firstly, an organisation needs to
appoint the appropriate staff to deal with confidential
reports, otherwise known as a ‘Whistleblowing Officer’. This
position is generally given to a senior executive, and we’ll go
into more detail on that role a bit later.
Secondly, an organisation needs to work on creating
a smooth process. A whistleblowing procedure needs to
outline how a report can be made, who to make it to, when
and how the organisation will investigate, and how the
outcome will be managed.
“There should be policies and procedures laid out for
whistleblowers by the organisation for each stage. What
the person’s responsibilities are, what the organisation’s
responsibilities are, and what legislation is available to
them,” Nathan says.
Thirdly, once a procedure is established, it must be
communicated throughout the workplace, and be available
to any employee at any stage. According to Karen Gately,
“taking time to ensure every team member is educated
about the policy, the expectations it sets and protections it
provides, demonstrates commitment to creating an ethical
and accountable environment in which everyone is expected
to play a role.”
Anonymity is also paramount throughout the whole