Whistleblowers call out corruption in diverse contexts – sometimes even within the very institutions that are supposed to fight it. In 2022, a whistleblower informed the ALAC run by MANS, Transparency International’s partner in Montenegro, that managers at the country’s Agency for Prevention of Corruption (APC) had granted a Serbian software company illegal access to private data on Montenegrin public officials. MANS’ investigation concluded that APC paid the software company almost €250,000 (around US$273,000) to develop a database – but instead of giving it sample data to work with, the agency had violated Montenegrin law by forwarding personal data to a foreign company. MANS informed the Agency for Protection of Private Data, which carried out a control visit that verified the whistleblower’s report and ordered APC to terminate the contract.
The whistleblower also reported the illegal use of APC vehicles by the agency’s director, including purchase of a luxury car which the director used for private purposes, replacing the government licence plates with civil ones. In response, MANS launched a public campaign highlighting the abuse and submitted a criminal complaint against the director in February 2023. This case highlights whistleblowers’ vital role in exposing wrongdoing in public institutions – even those specifically designed to promote integrity.
Source: Transparency International https://www.transparency.org/en/blog/whistleblower-stories-individuals-safeguarded-public-interest-exposing-misconduct?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly-17-01-2025
