Conspiracies, secret agendas, ICANN and a whistleblower policy.
A whole lot of people I talk to think that there is all sorts of skulduggery and plotting that goes inside ICANN. There are people who think that if we could but see what goes on in internal email lists the way we see what goes on in volunteer lists, we would be shocked. That if we could but see behind the ICANN curtain we would see all sorts of mean nasty stuff going on.
This may be nothing more then conspiracy thinking. Personally I still don’t believe in conspiracies, but rather believe in massive misunderstanding and a divided brain that keeps the left hand from knowing what the left brain intends, likewise for the right hand and right brain.
But I might be wrong, some of my best friends certainly tell me I am. There might be conspiracies and things going on.
Or the truth may be somewhere in between like it usually is.
It is a matter of institutional confidence. Regular people should not have these feeling (sure the conspiracy aficionados always will). And those of us who still believe in and have hope for the institution should be able to silence those who suspect the existence of secret agendas by pointing to all sorts of light shinning on internal practices. Unfortunately I don’t see much to point at.
One way to find out, would be to make the archives of Staff lists open as much as possible. Do we really need closed lists for support staff whose job is to help the volunteers do their work? I don’t see why. But I doubt that this sort of openness can happen soon. The culture of circled wagons is much too ingrained for something like that to happen - and that kind of change can be jarring. But I expect that if some of the lists, e.g. those dealing with support of the various policy groups, were opened we would pick up on a few little peccadilloes, but that for the most part it would clear the air about all that mean nasty stuff people suspect. But never mind, that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.
For now, though, the only way to find out what is happening on Staff lists is to ask the Ombudsman to check as part of a complaint. And that is a pretty heavy hammer to have to use. But it is there for those who want or need to avail themselves of it. As I understand it, the ombudsman’s office has access to every internal email list that they can access if appropriate.
One thought I did have. Perhaps nothing is going on, and everything inside ICANN is squeaky clean and above board. It could be the case! And if something was going on, someone on Staff surely would have blown the whistle.
I then I started wondering, does ICANN even have a whistleblower encouragemet and protection policy?
One World Trust recommended it:
100. While ICANN has three mechanisms for investigating complaints from members of the ICANN community, the organisation does not have a policy or system in place that provides staff with channels through which they can raise complaints in confidentiality and without fear of retaliation. Having such a policy (often referred to as a whistleblower policy) is good practice among global organisations. A whistleblower policy that provides such protections serves as an important means of ensuring accountability to staff as well as preventing fraudulent behaviour, misconduct and corruption within an organisation.
101. The United Nation’s whistleblower policy is an example of good practice. It includes a definition of whistleblowing consistent with good practice and provides multiple channels for reporting violations thus offering safeguards against institutionalized conflict of interest, protection for outside parties, and mandatory discipline for those who retaliated against complainants. To embed the whistleblower policy in the organisation’s culture, the UN also trains staff and senior management on the implementation of the policy.
102. While whistleblower protections already exist under both Californian state law through the California Labour Code and Federal law through the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, ICANN should comply with good practice and develop an organisation-wide whistleblower policy. This would clearly state the protections afforded to staff, provide multiple channels through which a complaint can be made and clearly identify the steps of the complaints process.
Legal counsel said they would develop one in 2007:
A whistleblower policy will be developed by General Counsel that outlines ICANN’s local obligations under law as well as a statement of principle to develop a uniform approach across ICANN offices.
So ICANN must have one!
But I can’t find any information on it.
Was anything ever proposed?
Was it ever enacted?
I looked, but I did not find it (it might just be the logic of the web site that still sometimes escapes me). I did check the Improving Institutional Confidence materials and did not see any reference. Again, I may be missing it. Though I should not be able to miss it - that is the sort of program that should be easy to find and obvious to follow up on. And if there is such a program, how many times has the whistle been blown, on what sorts of activities and with what dispositions?
If ICANN does have a whistleblower encouragement and protection policy, do the employees know about it?
And if they know about it do they trust it?
At this point, I can only wonder. Well I can also recommend that if ICANN does not have a whistleblower encouragement and protection policy they should develop and enact one immediately. And if they do have one, they should make it a prominent part of the web site and give the public yearly statistics on its usage and effectiveness.
