chAPTeR eleven • The BuReAucRAcy 263
Whistleblower
In the context of gov-
ernment, someone who
brings gross governmental
inefficiency or an illegal
action to the public’s
attention.that do not spend their entire budgets to keep some of the difference and reward employ-
ees with performance-based bonuses.
At the federal level, the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 was
designed to improve efficiency in the federal workforce. The act required all government
agencies (except the Central Intelligence Agency) to describe their new goals and estab-
lish methods for determining whether those goals are being met. Goals may be broadly
crafted (for example, reducing the time it takes to test a new drug before allowing it to
be marketed) or narrowly crafted (for example, reducing the number of times a telephone
rings before it is answered).helping out the Whistleblowers
A whistleblower is someone who “blows the whistle” on gross governmental ineffi-
ciency or illegal action. Whistleblowers may be clerical workers, managers, or specialists,
such as scientists.laws Protecting Whistleblowers. The 1978 Civil Service Reform Act prohibits reprisals
against whistleblowers by their superiors, and it set up the Merit Systems Protection Board
as part of this protection. Many federal agencies also have toll-free hotlines that employ-
ees can use anonymously to report bureaucratic waste and inappropriate behavior. About
35 percent of all calls result in agency action or follow-up.
Further protection for whistleblowers was provided in 1989, when Congress passed
the Whistleblower Protection Act. That act established an inde-
pendent agency, the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), to inves-
tigate complaints brought by government employees who have
been demoted, fired, or otherwise sanctioned for reporting gov-
ernment fraud or waste.
Some state and federal laws encourage employees to blow
the whistle on their employers’ wrongful actions by providing
monetary incentives to the whistleblowers. At the federal level,
the False Claims Act of 1986 allows a whistleblower who has
disclosed information about a fraud against the U.S. government
to receive a monetary award. If the government chooses to pros-
ecute the case and wins, the whistleblower receives between 15
and 25 percent of the proceeds. If the government declines to
intervene, the whistleblower can bring a suit on behalf of the
government and, if the suit is successful, will receive between 25
and 30 percent of the proceeds.The Problem continues. Despite these efforts to help whistle-
blowers, there is little evidence that they truly receive much pro-
tection. More than 41 percent of the employees who turned to
the OSC for assistance in a recent three-year period stated that
they were no longer employees of the government agencies on
which they had blown the whistle. The government’s difficulty
in dismissing employees seems to magically disappear when the
employee is a whistleblower.
Additionally, in 2006 the United States Supreme Court
placed restrictions on lawsuits brought by public workers.^4 The- Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 (2006).
dr. victoria hampshire,
an oversight officer at the Food and Drug
Administration, blew the whistle on a pet
medicine that turned out to be harmful.
Hampshire was removed from her position when
the drug maker complained, but she was later
cleared by an agency investigation. (AP Photo/
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