Whistleblower Protection (CI0018)

Adopt and popularize a law on the protection of those reporting acts of corruption and related offenses. 15 January 2019 - 30 June 2020 Lead implementing agency/actor High Authority for Good Governance (HABG) Commitment description What is the public problem that the commitment will address? The lack of legal means to protect whistle blowers maintains the fear to denounce or participate in the fight against corruption. What is the commitment ? The High Authority for Good Governance undertakes to popularize the law related to the protection of whistle blowers after its adoption. The Commitment consists in : - making the law adopted; - informing the population on physical, psychological safety guarantees given by the State, if the population agrees to report acts of corruption and related offenses of which it is a victim or witness, - explaining specific arrangements for protecting whistle blowers, - getting the population to report acts of corruption and related offenses. These organizations shall be deployed in the field to continue the law outreach actions. How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem? The implementation of this commitment should result in awareness of citizens about legal arrangements which protect them against retaliations, threats and intimidations from, corrupt actors. The more people feel themselves protected, the better they will participate in combating corruption. The whistle blowers and witnesses may declare the address of the police station, the brigade of gendarmerie, the High Authority for Good Governance to be their registered addresses. Whistle blowers and witnesses may report on a confidential basis.
Whistle blowers and witnesses as well as their relatives are
effectively protected.
This commitment will enable the population to be informed
on guarantees provided by law in terms of serenity, physical
or psychological integrity of persons or their properties and
possibly those of families or relatives of these persons, for a
cooperation without fear, likely to efficiently contribute to
the establishment of the truth.
Why is this commitment
relevant to OGP values?
This commitment improves and strengthens the fight against
corruption.
Likewise, it is relevant in terms of access to information and
citizen participation.
Additional information
The draft legislation is in process of being adopted by the
Parliament.
Commitment budget: CFA F 50 000 000 broken down as
follows :
- CFA F 15 000 000 in 2019
- CFA F 15 000 000 in 2020
Milestone Activity having a
verifiable deliverable
Start date End date
Civil society organizations
training on law relating to
witnesses and whistle
blowers' protection and on
the commitment of the High
Authority for Good
Governance;
February 2019 February 2019
The law outreach activities
with the justice system
stakeholders: Magistrates,
police,, gendarmerie
April 2019 April 2019
The law outreach activities
with Kings and Traditional
Chiefs June 2019 June 2019
The law outreach activities
October 2019 October 2019 with religious communities
Logistical and financial
support from civil society
organizations and
deployment in the field
February 2020 April 2020
Commitment roll-out
workshop May 2020 May 2020
Contact information
Name of responsible person
from the implementing
agency
Mr. Koffi Kablan Marc Antoine
Title, Department - Secretary General
- High Good Governance Authority
- Presidency of the Republic
Email and Phone - TEL : (+225) 22 47 95 00
- FAX : (+225) 22 47 82 64
Other Actors
Involved
State actors
involved
- Ministry of Justice and Human Right;
- Parliament;
- Presidency of the Republic
CSOs, private
sector,
multilaterals,
working
groups
CSO

3. Adopt and popularize a law on the protection of those reporting acts of corruption and related offenses

Commitment description as it appears in the action plan:

"The High Authority for Good Governance undertakes to popularize the law related to the protection of whistleblowers after its adoption. The Commitment consists in: implementing the law, informing the population on guarantees given by the State and specific arrangements for protecting whistleblowers, and getting the population to report acts of corruption and related offenses."

Milestones:

1. Civil society organizations training on law relating to witnesses and whistleblowers' protection and on the commitment of the High Authority for Good Governance
2. Law outreach activities with the justice system stakeholders: Magistrates, police, gendarmerie
3. Law outreach activities with Kings and Traditional Chiefs
4. Law outreach activities with religious communities
5. Logistical and financial support from civil society organizations and deployment in the field
6. Commitment roll-out workshop"

Editorial note: For the full text of this commitment, see Côte d'Ivoire’s action plan 2018-2020: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Cote-Divoire_Action-Plan_2018-2020_EN.pdf.

Lead implementing agency/actor: High Authority for Good Governance (HABG) / Civil society organizations

Start Date: January 2019

End Date: June 2020

Context and design

The Afrobarometer report from October 2017 [48] revealed that 68% of Ivorians fear retaliation or negative consequences if they report any corrupt acts they may have witnessed. A perceived protection for whistleblowers in Côte d’Ivoire has discouraged citizens from aiding in the fight against corruption. Whistleblowers need information about procedures for denouncing acts of corruption and are exposed to numerous dangers: arbitrary arrests or abuse by authorities were reported [49], as well as threats and reprisals from offenders.

In this setting, the purpose of this commitment was to build awareness of the Whistleblower Protection Act in Côte d’Ivoire and legal provisions that protect citizens from retaliations, threats and coercion from perpetrators. The commitment milestones incorporated training for civil society organizations in whistleblower protection and outreach with justice system stakeholders, Kings, traditional chiefs, and religious communities, support to organizations in the field and a closing workshop.

The milestones are verifiable, but need more information about the number of CSOs to be trained, the nature of outreach activities, and which and how many stakeholders are involved in the commitment roll-out. Moreover, it is unclear how logistical and financial support from civil society organizations is organized and the related responsibilities.

The commitment is relevant to access to information. Through awareness-raising and outreach activities, the government would further transparency around legal guarantees for protecting the anonymity and safety of whistleblowers. Training, along with logistical and financial support to CSO could benefit enforcement and implementation of the law. However, with limited details of the respective milestones, it is uncertain how the commitment could foster civic participation or public accountability.

Even if the commitment encourages more citizens to denounce corruption, its potential impact remains minor as it only concerns awareness-raising activities for a law that was adopted at the end of 2018. [50] Moreover, according to the Civil Society Platform for OGP (PSCI-PGO), no clear strategy exists to protect whistleblowers, which limits commitment’s potential impact.

Completion

This commitment is considered as substantially completed. According to the self-assessment report, most of the training took place during the implementation period; some began in mid-2018. In total, activities covered 23 out of 31 total regions. HABG supervised training for more than 500 civil society organizations and held education campaigns about the law for kings and traditional leaders. Only awareness-raising activities for legal system actors -magistrates, police, gendarmerie- were not achieved. [51]

HABG also partnered with the principal religious groups to set a framework for collaboration the HABG and religious denominations in the fight against corruption. [52] The government self-assessment features a new milestone for establishment of a national whistleblower protection office, provided for by the whistleblower law (articles 5 and 6). [53] The Council of Ministers adopted the relevant decree on December 8, 2020. [54]

Admirably, the government's self-assessment report details the results of dissemination activities beyond those envisioned in the commitment text. For example, awareness-raising campaigns and training resulted in 23 local integrity committees established by civil society organizations in each area. These committees include local civil society stakeholders (union of transporters, retailers, youth and women organizations, traditional and religious leaders, etc.) who are involved in awareness-raising, monitoring and/or education about acts of corruption. The members are volunteers but the HABG supports these committees with materials and equipment such as computers, internet kits, megaphones, t-shirts and campaign materials. [55]

Awareness-raising is essential to guarantee that potential whistleblowers are aware of their legal rights and protections from the start. However, fully implementing the law dictates forceful government regulations and institutions with a confirmed track record of protecting identities and investigating reports of corruption. To increase the ambition of this reform in future iterations, the government should seek to include activities beyond awareness-raising activities to those that strengthen regulations and institutions.