Summary: In its review of 19 federal agencies, GAO found patchwork implementation of the whistleblower statutes designed to protect government workers who report waste, fraud, and abuse. Some agencies had informed all of their employees of their whistleblower rights, while others had yet to inform any. Most agencies had not developed policies and procedures to implement the statutes. GAO believes that, if employees had adequate knowledge about the whistleblower statutes and understood the federal government's policy toward whistleblowing--one of encouraging disclosures and affording protection from reprisals--more employees might be willing to step forward to report problems. GAO also discovered that the statutes do not currently protect all federal employees against reprisals. The 19 agencies had mixed views on the effectiveness of the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989. GAO summarized this report, along with other recent work on this subject, in testimony before Congress. GAO concludes that employees are still having a hard time proving cases of reprisal and are often unaware of their right to protection; see: Whistleblower Protection: Employees' Awareness and Impact of the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, by Nancy R. Kingsbury, Director of Federal Human Resource Management Issues, before the Subcommittee on the Civil Service, House Committee on Post Office and Civil Service. GAO/T-GGD-93-19, Mar. 31, 1993 (seven pages).
