[smartdoctor] zviždači -diljem svijeta
- From: "BARI" <bari.sita@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <smartdoctor@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 12:04:37 +0100
http://www.pcaw.co.uk/aboutus/whistleblowers.htm
Dr Jiang Yanyong : SARS
At the beginning of 2003 authorities became aware of a new and potentially
fatal atypical pneumonia. The virus was christened SARS (Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome) and, with no vaccine and no treatment, it was
perceived by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a worldwide threat to
public health.
On 3 April 2003, China's Minister of Health, Zhang Wenkang, announced to the
world's press that the Chinese government was diligently dealing with SARS
and that the spread of the virus was under control. Keen to avoid any
embarrassing "instability", Zhang stated that the Beijing had reported 12
SARS cases, of which 3 had died.
Dr Jiang Yanyong, a semi-retired surgeon at Beijing's Hospital No. 301
watched this broadcast. Jiang knew from colleagues that Zhang's figure for
SARS cases was considerably lower than the actual number of people treated
for the virus in Beijing. He raised his concerns in an e-mail to Chinese
media. Although initially not reported domestically, the e-mail was leaked
to foreign media and the story spread around the world. Jiang's actions
alerted China and the rest of the world to the full extent of the epidemic.
Meanwhile, Jiang also asked the managers at Hospital No. 301 to tell higher
authorities his view that Zhang should admit his mistake and resign. He
stated:
"If the statistics I reported prove to be wrong, I will immediately announce
to the WHO and I will be willing to be punished. If the statistics released
by the Ministry of Health are wrong, then please correct them."
Jiang's actions forced the Ministry of Health to revise their SARS figures
in Beijing to 339 diagnosed and 402 suspected cases. The Ministry was also
forced to admit it had failed to cope with the emergency. Health Minister
Zhang and the Mayor of Beijing were dismissed. Jiang was praised in the
Chinese media as the "honest doctor who lead the way in revealing the truth
about the outbreak". Although he was not allowed to speak to foreign media
without permission, Jiang stated publicly at the time that he had not being
victimised.
By early July 2003, the SARS human-to-human transmission chain was broken.
Over 280 people had died in Mainland China and initial estimates put the
financial cost to the Far East at $30 billion. But for Jiang's actions, the
epidemic would have been much worse.
The Ramon Magasaysay Awards, the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prizes,
recognised Jiang's efforts when in 2004 it awarded him its public service
award.
In 2004, Jiang continued his campaigning on the issue of the Tiananmen
Square massacre by sending a letter to the Communist Party leadership. In
this, he urged the leadership to see the pro-democracy protests as a
patriotic act, rather than a "counter-revolutionary rebellion". After his
letter was leaked to The Associated Press, Jiang was detained for sevens
weeks by the military and subjected to daily "re-education" sessions in an
attempt to get him to renounce his letter. Those close to his family have
apparently stated that Jiang refused to back down and, in the face of
international criticism, Jiang was released.
A detailed account, and ordering details, of Jiang's whistleblowing can be
found in <http://www.pcaw.co.uk/law/wbaroundtheworld.htm> Whistleblowing
Around the World: Law, Culture and Practice..
Public Concern
Making Whistleblowing Work
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. <http://www.pcaw.co.uk/news/news.htm> News
Whistleblowers
<http://www.pcaw.co.uk/aboutus/whistleblowers.htm#SBolsin> Dr Stephen
Bolsin: Bristol Royal Infirmary
<http://www.pcaw.co.uk/aboutus/whistleblowers.htm#ccooper> Cynthia Cooper:
WorldCom
<http://www.pcaw.co.uk/aboutus/whistleblowers.htm#jyanyong> Dr Jiang
Yanyong: SARS
<http://www.pcaw.co.uk/aboutus/whistleblowers.htm#amillar> Dr Andrew
Millar: British Biotech
<http://www.pcaw.co.uk/aboutus/whistleblowers.htm#crowley> Coleen Rowley:
September 11
<http://www.pcaw.co.uk/aboutus/whistleblowers.htm#htempleton> Harry
Templeton: Maxwell Pensions Scandal
<http://www.pcaw.co.uk/aboutus/whistleblowers.htm#pbuitenen> Paul van
Buitenen: European Commission Fraud
<http://www.pcaw.co.uk/aboutus/whistleblowers.htm#swatkins> Sherron
Watkins: Enron
Dr Stephen Bolsin : Bristol Royal Infirmary
Dr Bolsin worked as a consultant anaesthetist at the Bristol Royal Infirmary
in the UK. Shortly after starting work at the BRI he became concerned about
how open-heart surgery on babies was conducted at the hospital and the
higher than normal death rate for these operations. Through the late 1980s
and early 1990s, he raised his concerns with colleagues, fellow
anaesthetists and hospital managers, but they were not addressed. In the
end, Bolsin expressed his concerns to the Department of Health and the
media.
In January 1995, Joshua Loveday died during an open-heart operation that Dr
Bolsin had argued should not go ahead. When Joshua's parents complained to
the General Medical Council, Bolsin sent a letter to the GMC supporting
their complaint. Consequently, two cardiac surgeons and the hospital's chief
executive were found guilty of professional misconduct. One surgeon and the
chief executive were removed from the medical register. The remaining
surgeon resigned with an undertaking that he not perform heart operations
for three years.
In 1998, the Government established the Kennedy Inquiry into events
surrounding the care of children undergoing complex cardiac surgery at the
BRI. The Inquiry's report stated that:
"while Dr Bolsin's actions may not always have been the wisest, and
sometimes he gave mixed signals.he persisted and he was right to do so."
View <http://www.pcaw.co.uk/news/bristol.htm> PCaW's legal opinion on the
Kennedy Report and the Government's response.
Dr Bolsin felt that he was unable to continue working in the National Health
Service. He now lives in Australia, where he is Director of Perioperative
Medicine, Anaesthesia and Pain Management at Geelong Hospital.
Cynthia Cooper: WorldCom
Cynthia Cooper was vice president of the internal audit department at the
U.S. telecom company WorldCom. In March 2002, an executive told her that the
corporate accounting department had taken $400 million from the wireless
division reserves in order to boost WorldCom's income. Cooper raised her
concerns with WorldCom's accountants Andersen and she was told that it was
not her problem. When she continued to raise her concerns she was told by
WorldCom's Chief Financial Officer, Scott Sullivan, to back off.
Having seen Andersen's role in the Enron debacle, Cooper was worried that
WorldCom could not necessarily rely on their audits. Cooper and her team
decided to check the work done by Andersen. In late May 2002, Cooper and her
team discovered a gaping hole in the books. In public reports the company
had falsely categorised billions of dollars as capital expenditures in 2001.
This allowed WorldCom to turn a $662 million loss into a $2.4 billion
profit.
On June 11 2002, Sullivan asked Cooper to delay the audit, she refused. The
next day Cooper told the head of the audit committee about her findings.
Finally, Cooper and her team confronted WorldCom's controller David Myers
who, according to an internal audit memo, admitted that he knew the
accounting could not be justified. On June 20, Cooper and a team member
attended an audit-committee meeting of WorldCom's board of directors at
which Sullivan was to explain his accounting strategy. Sullivan asked for
more time to fully support his argument. When he could not justify his
accounting strategy, he was asked to resign. Sullivan refused to step down
and was fired on June 24. The next day WorldCom came clean about it's
financial situation.
In August 2002, Sullivan was indicted on charges of securities fraud.
WorldCom filed for bankruptcy. 17,000 employees were made redundant around
the globe. Shareholders have lost some $3 billion. The California public
employees' retirement system, the largest state pension fund in the United
States, lost $580 million it had invested in WorldCom.
Cooper continued to work at WorldCom (which has now changed it's name to
MCI) before leaving to run her own consulting business. Despite the fact
that WorldCom carried out many of her recommendations, Cooper was not been
personally thanked by any senior executive for her actions. However, she has
received more than 100 letters and e-mails from strangers offering
encouragement and thanking her.
Cooper was named Time Person of the Year in 2002 along with fellow
whistleblowers <http://www.pcaw.co.uk/aboutus/whistleblowers.htm#crowley>
Coleen Rowley and
<http://www.pcaw.co.uk/aboutus/whistleblowers.htm#swatkins> Sherron Watkins.
Dr Andrew Millar : British Biotech
Dr Andrew Millar was the Director of Clinical Research for British Biotech,
a leading UK biotech drug company. He was aware that preliminary results
from trials of two key new drugs were not encouraging. Dr Millar became
increasingly concerned that British Biotech's public statements on the
prospects of these drugs were misleading and its bold expansion plans
overambitious.
Although Dr Millar raised his concerns with British Biotech's directors with
increasing anxiety, the directors remained optimistic about the potential of
the drugs. As Dr Millar absented himself when the major shareholders visited
Biotech, one institutional investor sought him out privately and asked if he
had any concerns. Dr Millar explained his fears.
When British Biotech discovered this, it dismissed Dr Millar and sued him
for disclosing confidential information. Out of a job and feeling threatened
by the legal action, Dr Millar counter-sued for libel and wrongful dismissal
(with financial backing from the British Medical Association). This
litigation attracted much media attention and a Parliamentary inquiry. The
select committee report into the affair stated that: "Dr Millar's actions in
briefing Perpetual, while certainly unusual, seem more the product of
difficulties at British Biotech than the origin of them." Regulators in the
US and UK also investigated whether investors had been misled.
In June 1999, just before the <http://www.pcaw.co.uk/law/uklegislation.htm>
Public Interest Disclosure Act came into force, Biotech offered to settle
the case with Dr Millar for an undisclosed, but reportedly substantial, sum.
As part of the settlement, Biotech also publicly stated "that Dr Millar has
always acted in accordance with his medical opinion, his professional
obligations to patients involved in clinical trials, his conscience and his
view of the best interests of British Biotech."
The conclusions for the final drug trials were published in 1999 and showed
that the company's early statements had been seriously over-optimistic.
Through and after this dispute, the shares of British Biotech were a
fraction of their previous high. Meanwhile, Dr Millar has been able to
successfully pursue his medical career elsewhere.
Coleen Rowley : September 11
Zacarias Moussaoui aroused the suspicions of a flight instructor at a
Minnesota flight school when he paid cash to take a flight-simulator course
for a Boeing 747. After more than fifty hours of instruction, Moussaoui had
failed to solo even a single-engine aeroplane. The instructor was suspicious
as to why Moussaoui now wanted to learn to fly a large, commercial jet but
not how to take-off and land it. The flight instructor called the Federal
Bureau of Investigation and, in August 2001, agents from the FBI's
Minneapolis office arrested Moussaoui on an immigration violation. Inquiries
into Moussaoui's background uncovered French intelligence service suspicions
that he had links to Islamic extremist groups. In order to find out more
about his intentions, the Minneapolis office's legal counsel, Coleen Rowley,
sent a request to FBI headquarters for a warrant to search Moussaoui's
computer and personal affects. This warrant was not granted.
On September 11 2001, Islamic terrorists hijacked commercial jet planes. Two
of these planes were flown into and destroyed the World Trade Centre in New
York. Another was flown into the Pentagon in Washington DC, and the final
plane crashed before it could reach its target. Thousands died. A subsequent
search of Moussaoui's computer found information on commercial aeroplanes
and in December 2001 Moussaoui was charged as a conspirator in the terrorist
attacks.
In May 2002, Rowley sent a memo to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller in which
she alleged that FBI headquarters had deliberately blocked Minneapolis'
requests for a warrant. She stated that:
"[a]lthough I agree that it's very doubtful that the full scope of the
tragedy could have been prevented, it's at least possible we could have
gotten lucky and uncovered one or two more of the terrorists in flight
training prior to September 11."
She also raised her concern that after the terrorist attacks:
"certain facts have been omitted, downplayed, glossed over and/or
mis-characterised in an effort to avoid or minimise personal and/or
institutional embarrassment."
FBI Director Mueller has thanked Rowley for raising her concerns while
Senator Charles Grassley has praised her as "a patriotic American". She was
named Time Person of the Year 2002 along with fellow whistleblowers
<http://www.pcaw.co.uk/aboutus/whistleblowers.htm#ccooper> Cynthia Cooper
and <http://www.pcaw.co.uk/aboutus/whistleblowers.htm#swatkins> Sherron
Watkins. Coleen Rowley continued to work as an FBI agent until her
retirement at the end of 2004.
Harry Templeton : Maxwell Pensions Scandal
Harry Templeton worked as a printer on the Scottish Daily Record and the
Sunday Mail, newspapers owned by Robert Maxwell's Mirror Group. In 1985,
Templeton was appointed as a trustee of the Mirror Group Pension Scheme.
Templeton often found himself as the only trustee challenging Maxwell's
misuse of pension funds and this lead to him being fired in 1988. Maxwell
vowed Templeton would never work in the print industry again. Only after
Maxwell's death a couple of years later was it revealed that Maxwell had
stolen Ł400 million of staff pension money.
To see a transcript of Harry Templeton's evidence to the House of Commons
Social Security Select Committee into the Maxwell affair, please click
<http://www.pcaw.co.uk/aboutus/aboutus_pdfs/templeton_evidence.pdf> here.
Templeton's exclusive account of his whistleblowing experiences appears in
<http://www.pcaw.co.uk/law/wbaroundtheworld.htm> Whistleblowing Around the
World: Law, Culture and Practice. You can order a copy.
Harry Templeton is now a pensions adviser and was Director of Public Concern
at Work's Scottish office.
Paul van Buitenen : European Commission Fraud
Paul van Buitenen was an internal auditor at the European Commission in
Brussels. He repeatedly raised concerns about fraud, nepotism and
mismanagement in the Commission with senior Commission officials, but was
ignored. In December 1998, van Buitenen sent a dossier on his concerns to
the European Parliament, details of which were subsequently disclosed in the
press. He was suspended on half pay in January 1999 and was given a
different job pending the results of an internal inquiry into his actions.
In response to van Buitenen's concerns, Commission President Jacques Santer
appointed a Committee of Independent Experts to investigate. The March 1999
report of the Committee concluded, "it is becoming difficult to find anyone
who has even the slightest sense of responsibility." Consequently, all 20
European Commissioners resigned.
Although the Committee of Independent Experts' report vindicated van
Buitenen, he was issued with a formal reprimand (the mildest form of
sanction available) for breach of confidence. Paul van Buitenen continued to
work for the Commission as an auditor until August 2002, when he returned to
his native Netherlands to work as a financial controller. He was awarded a
knighthood (ridder in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau) by Queen Beatrix of The
Netherlands. In 2003, van Buitenen took up a new job at the European
Commission and in 2004 he was elected to the European Parliament.
The second report of the Committee of Independent Experts stated that; "the
events leading up to the resignation of the former Commission demonstrated
the value of officials whose conscience persuades them of the need to expose
wrongdoings encountered during the course of their duties."
Sherron Watkins : Enron
Sherron Watkins is vice-president of corporate development at the US energy
company Enron. In August 2001, she sent a memo to Enron chairman Kenneth Lay
warning him about accounting practices in the company; stating that she was
"nervous that we will implode in a wave of accounting scandals". Her
concerns were that Enron was using off-the-books partnerships to hide
hundreds of millions of dollars in losses in an effort to inflate its
profits. Lay's response was to instigate a limited investigation by Enron's
lawyers, which found that there was no major problem. Watkins has stated
that Enron's chief financial officer Andrew Fastow (who headed several of
the partnerships) sought her dismissal after hearing about her warnings.
Watkins also raised her concerns with people at Andersen, Enron's auditors.
In October 2001, Watkins sent a memo to Lay urging him to "come clean" about
the hidden losses and tell regulators. Events took over and in November
Enron admitted it had overstated its profits dating back to 1997 by $600
million. In December, Enron filed for bankruptcy, its value having fallen by
over $1 billion. Enron employees found themselves redundant, with pensions
(which had been invested in Enron stock) worth a fraction of their original
value. Investigations by regulators, prosecutors and Congress into Enron's
activities are currently ongoing. Sherron Watkins remained a vice-president
at Enron until November 2002, when she resigned to become a corporate
governance consultant.
Congressman Jim Greenwood has said that Watkins is "a loyal company
employee, who sought valiantly and sadly, in vain, to get the people in
charge to face the facts and make the hard choices needed to save the
company." Her efforts were also recognised when she was named Time Person of
the Year 2002 along with fellow whistleblowers
<http://www.pcaw.co.uk/aboutus/whistleblowers.htm#crowley> Coleen Rowley and
<http://www.pcaw.co.uk/aboutus/whistleblowers.htm#ccooper> Cynthia Cooper.
Watkins' exclusive account of her experiences appears in
<http://www.pcaw.co.uk/law/wbaroundtheworld.htm> Whistleblowing Around the
World: Law, Culture and Practice.
.
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