Ethical Responsibility Of Engineers For Alumnus Whistleblowing

Since the Watergate cover-up of the mid-1970s the US culture has begun to support the idea of whistleblowing and the belief that persons with knowledge should be encouraged to expose government and private mismanagement, wrongdoing, illegal conduct or conduct dangerous to the health and safety of others. Congress established the Office of Inspector General (OIG) in 1978. The OIG maintains a 24-hour hotline for people to report government mismanagement, wrongdoing, illegal conduct, or conduct dangerous to the health and safety of others. The General Accounting Office (GAO) was established by Congress to improve the efficiency of the U.S. government financial audits and reviews. Another example, which shows the support for whistleblowing, is the appearance in employment law of the public policy exception to the employment-at-will doctrine. Historically the employment-at-will doctrine held that an employer may terminate an employee for any reason or no reason. Over time the law has restricted this right of employers and some employers may not terminate persons based on race, creed, sex, national origin and to some extent disability.