[Foundation-l] Audit charter and whistleblower policy

[Anthony]

On 6/15/07, Florence Devouard <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> * and a whistleblower policy
> (http://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=Whistleblower_Policy&oldid=21384)
>
> Not much more to say :-)
>
> If you have any issue to raise, any criticism, or whatever, please do
> not hesitate to comment.
>
My initial reaction to the whistleblower policy was that it was a very
bad policy.  However, I thought maybe I was just overreacting, so I
didn't comment on it.  Then I asked Danny, who is a former employee of
the corporation, what he thought.  His response, which I'm not going
to get into in detail on this list, expressed the exact same concern
that I had.  The policy leaves the executive director and board chair
in a position of ultimate authority.  And there isn't even an
executive director right now.

The rest of my comments are my own, and not derived from Danny's.

"If any employee reasonably believes that some policy, practice, or
activity of Wikimedia Foundation Inc is in violation of law, a written
complaint must be filed by that employee with the Executive Director
or the Board Chair."  The word "must" there is incredibly disturbing.

It also bothers me that employees are the ones expected to sign this
policy.  Looking at this policy, it seems to me that it will only
serve to stifle the spread of information.  Anything anyone believes
to be illegal must be reported to the board chair.  The board chair is
not required by the policy to do *anything at all* with that
information.

I don't understand what the purpose was of the whistleblower policy,
but it doesn't seem like it serves any positive purpose.