Whistleblower Policy

When one of the FCB staff told me that the management had called staff meeting asking them not to  write anything in bhutanliterature.blogspot.com, I had a mixed feeling of both sadness and happiness. I was sad because people would be left in darkness if the people no longer commented and the suppression of any unethical would be taken to new heights. The comments passed on by many staff in my blog updated staff and others across the world  about what was happening in FCB and how staff digested it. In absence of grievance redressal or whistleblower policy in FCB,  the erstwhile  FCB management was on wild elephant rampage, and as a result, the  staff had no choice but to vent their frustrations through my blog. They needed a channel to pass on the message to the management that not all things are tolerated and the world outside needed to know  that something was not going right in FCB. I think their messages, even if it was in its crudest form and language, have been delivered  and remains to be read by people of all generations in the future.

However, I was happy that if people no longer commented and shared information,  my blog could  now be re-engineered to focus on Bhutanese literature for which it was actually created. Bhutanliterature was created in 2008-2009  while I was studying in Bangkok to keep myself gainfully engaged in Bhutanese  literature as the blog name suggests. I had no clue then that my blog would be used for fighting mismanagement, corruption,  inefficiencies and unfair treatment by the management of one of the oldest companies in Bhutan. What bothered me was the way the erstwhile  FCB management carried out systematic manipulation of accounts, arms twisting of people, suppressing and   misrepresenting of facts by even changing the investigation reports, deleting data from the backend and creating shortages. The evidences available speak for themselves. 

If there are any problems arising in a company involving staff, the  affected employee  look upon the management to carryout UNBIASED investigation,  provide fair and just  view of the issues and resolve AMICABLY so that everyone has a fair deal. The management is expected to make transparent deal and make responsibility based on facts and not on manipulated documents. An investigation team is not a JURY or JUDGE which has been empowered to pass JUDGMENT.  Every employee, including the CEO is an employee who will work in an organization for fixed period of time and he is not above the law. As the CEO, he has a moral responsibility to be fair and impartial, having character of a  moral. Today, we live in a country where there are thousands of educated people who can differentiate between RIGHT and WRONG. And anyone who can differentiate between right and wrong knows how to appreciate the rights and stand against the wrongs.

But my intention of writing this article is not to villify  Karma Nidup and demonize him. However, its important that such mistakes are indicated so that everyone moves forward.  As one of the oldest organizations in the country, the organization should spearhead new dynamics in management and one way of doing that is having Staff Grievance Redressal mechanism or  Whistleblowing policy instead of discouraging people from writing in my blog. Employees are the first people in the organization to know if something is going wrong inside.  Encouraging them to report would prevent organizations from major embarrassment in the future. The company may like to get the first hand information directly from dependable sources than from second hand sources like my blog. The staff may not be comfortable in revealing their identity for fear of being victimized but it makes sense for an organization to provide channels to reveal gross violations of citizens’ rights, failures of accountability, or corruption in the organization that are of immediate or potential danger to the public interest. It contributes to institutional transparency and prevents potential abuse of corporate power. It's a form of civil dissent, that is a conscientious act against the corporate and public powers when they endanger the public interest. 

The staff in FCB are exposed to many risks. The fact that the Source Code of FCB system is managed by FCB ICT team and that team makes all  the changes in the system from the Backend of the System is the greatest danger. If a data is deleted from the system from the backend, there is no audit trial of who has deleted the data and the people like Jeet Bdr. Biswa had done that before. Further, the weak check and balance in the system, including the weak internal control, makes FCB ever vulnerable. Having dissected FCB's data during the system audit and afterwards, I can prove beyond reasonable doubts that the FCB data has been grossly manipulated.