Today, Independent Science News published an article by William Sanjour, an EPA whistleblower and NWC Board Member.
In “Designed to Fail: Why Regulatory Agencies Don’t Work,” Mr. Sanjour uses his 30 years of experience at the EPA to not only explain the problem, but also to offer some solutions. One of his suggested solutions is to better protect whistleblowers.
“Congress ought to consider not merely protecting whistle blowers, but rewarding them. When a whistle blower’s charges prove correct, they should be given a cash reward in proportion to the importance of the revelation. Whistle blowers cost much less and are far more effective than salaried government enforcement officials.”
Mr. Sanjour’s article does a great job of explaining why administrative regulations are broken and why they failed to prevent the BP Oil Disaster and the loss of 25 miners’ lives in West Virginia.
“Compare this [EPA enforcement procedures] with what happens when you park under a “No Parking” sign. A policeman writes a ticket, and you can either pay the fine or tell it to the judge. If the EPA wrote the rules for parking violations, the officer would first have to determine if there were sufficient legal parking available at a reasonable cost and at a reasonable distance, and would then have to stand by the car and wait until the owner showed up so that he could negotiate a settlement agreement.”
Mr. Sanjour points out what we know to be true. Employees are the number one way to detect and deter fraud. Therefore, to find fraud you have to protect employees.
Please take a few minutes to read Mr. Sanjour’s article. It will be time well spent.