America will always need Whistleblowers

Commentary: America will always need whistleblowers
By SCOTT BLOCH - Head of U.S. Office of Special Counsel
January 29, 2007

Excerpt from The Federal Times - August 17, 2008

"A whistleblower is an ordinary hero who helps America function when it wants to slip into self-interest and faction. I get to reward ordinary heroes who report waste, fraud and abuse." Scott Bloch.

Alexander Hamilton was a hero of the founding of our country. In the Federalist Papers, he warned of our tendency toward faction and self-interest, and he incorporated a system of checks and balances into our Constitution. Americans want to know that the checks and balances are working, that public servants are making a difference and not wasting taxpayer money.

Today, we hear of wasteful government bureaucracies, bloated hand-out programs, unheralded pork and corrupt self-dealing. While there is some truth in this, media overcoverage of such matters distracts us from focusing on solutions.

Solutions lie with ordinary Americans. When we see something wrong, we need to blow the whistle. The recent election was a great example of how Americans can blow the whistle on what they see as wrong among their elected officials, or wrong about behavior or policy direction. Regardless of perspective, no one can doubt that our system is functioning.

The Office of Special Counsel is an agency dedicated to whistleblowers and to rooting out waste and corruption. Within the federal bureaucracy, we bring officials who have done wrong to justice. Although we are little known, OSC was recently a “Jeopardy’’ topic with the answer, “What is a whistleblower?”

A whistleblower is an ordinary hero who helps America function when it wants to slip into self-interest and faction. I get to reward ordinary heroes who report waste, fraud and abuse.

The entire article can be read here: http://www.federaltimes.com/index.php?S=2510890

Scott Bloch was appointed as Head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel in 2003 by President Bush.