Where would we be without whistle-blowers? These are citizens who expose wrongdoing in government, organizations and businesses, often at personal risk.
Even though some people may abuse the mantle to cover their own incompetence, misfeasance or malfeasance, recent history overwhelmingly shows corruption ? public and private ? would fester unchecked without whistle-blowers.
Federal and Maryland laws offer them some official protection, and many businesses and institutions wisely established internal regulations encouraging employees to come forward.
It still takes a lot of courage. Those exposed generally are powerful and hold a desperate interest in covering up inefficiency, misdeeds and sometimes even crimes. They strike back at anyone who rocks the boat, whether it?s in the public interest or not.
Just this week we witnessed Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station guard Kerry Beal losing his job a month after he exposed security forces there sleeping at work.
The 33-year-old commercial nuclear power plant on the Susquehanna River near York, Pa., began as an experimental reactor in 1967.
Owner Exelon Corp.?s official Web site claims “Peach Bottom employs a sophisticated emergency response plan to protect public health and safety. Both the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the commonwealth of Pennsylvania approved the plan.”
That plan certainly does not include guards sleeping on the job or the firing of those who reveal the dangerous practice.
We who live downstream and within fallout distance should err toward taking the side of whistle-blowers and helping them when they suffer for their good works.
Another is Baltimore City parking agent Sherrell Keene-el who revealed that the bogus ticket scandal city officials claim is an isolated incident they just found out about actually is just “the tip of the iceberg” in a widespread, possibly criminal practice to defraud citizens.
She says she reported it orally and in writing two years ago when Martin O?Malley was mayor, and nobody did anything.
The seven-year veteran said she came forward because “There are many good agents. … Tickets are legal documents. I take my job seriously. These [bad] agents reflect badly on the rest of us.”
Every citizen of Baltimore should keep a watchful eye over Keene-el to make sure officials do not punish her for doing the right thing. “I know what I am saying is the truth, so I?m not worried,” she said. But truth is a shield only if we, the people, stand behind her.
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission investigation of Peach Bottom found a culture that encouraged cover-up, yet when a guard finally did his duty, he lost his job because he “did not meet the selection criteria.”
That is exactly how the culture of cover-up grows.
Agencies and organizations that deal with whistleblower issues include:
Government Accountability Project
U.S. Office of Special Counsel Disclosure Unit
U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Administrative Law Judges
