Defense Whistleblower Protections Expand to Subcontractors
By Charles S. Clark
July 1, 2013
Monday, July 1, marks the first day employees of subcontractors on Defense contracts enjoy new protections against reprisals from supervisors for reporting waste or fraud, as required under the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act signed by President Obama in January.
“Previously, subcontractors could complain to a boss, but not to a government office,” noted Marguerite Garrison, deputy inspector general for administrative investigations at the Defense Department’s inspector general’s office, who met with reporters Thursday to get out the word.
The new law expands protections for whistleblowers against reprisals for disclosures they make “to a court, grand jury, management official or other employee of the contractor or subcontractor who has the responsibility to investigate, discover or address misconduct,” her guidance explains. Workplace information campaigns must be in the language of the workforce.
The new protections -- long favored by whistleblower advocacy groups and pursued by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., also alter the burden of proof on a preponderance of evidence to “bring it up to par with protections in other statutes,” said Nilgun Tolek, the Pentagon IG’s director of whistleblower reprisal investigations. “Congress has been going in this direction for a long time” ...
http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2013/07/defense-whistleblower-protections-expand-subcontractors/65801/