GS4 · 10 marks · 150 words

Highlighting the importance of whistle-blowing in an organisation, discuss the systemic factors that determine whether a person would become a whistle-blower.

Answered by 5 toppers · CSE 2021

CorruptionAccountability and Ethical GovernanceIntegrity

Syllabus: Probity in Governance: Concept of public service; Philosophical basis of governance and probity; Information sharing and transparency in government, Right to Information, Codes of Ethics, Codes of Conduct, Citizen’s Charters, Work culture, Quality of service delivery, Utilization of public funds, challenges of corruption.

How toppers approached it

From all 5 answers · about 160 words · 20% drew a diagram.

Opening

  • A definition100%

Body

  • Points80%
  • Points and prose20%

Close

  • No separate close40%
  • A summary40%
  • A way forward20%

The toppers’ answers

Gamini SinglaAIR 3 · CSE 2021 · 163 wordsTheir whole copy

Opening · a definition

The practice of whistle blowing refers to highlighting the negative and illegal practices going within an organisation, which are not in notice of government.

Body · points

Importance of whistle blowing

  1. Transparency about the internal functioning
  2. Raising awareness about any mal-practice among public
  3. Deterance against any future illegal activities
  4. Ensures accountability within the organisation
  5. Highlighting the corruption within an organisation
  6. Curb the negative impact on society in general eg: a whistleblower who highlights the reckless loan giving by a bank can prevent the crisis of scale of PNB Nirav Modi scam

Factors that determine

  1. Personal values - Honesty, Empathy kindness, responsibility towards fellow citizens, abiding by fundamental duties
  2. State protection against any harm eg whistleblower protection scheme, 2013
  3. Positive rewards eg SEBI's programme to reward corporate whistleblower.
  4. Precedents: Incidents like killing of Vineet Narayan deter a person

Close · a way forward

State must ensure that privacy of whistleblower is maintained, he must be saved against any threat to his/family lives

More on Corruption

The challenge of corruption: its causes, forms and control, whistleblowing, and the ethics of tolerating it.

All GS4 questions on Corruption