商业公司鼓励举报

The SEC offers a huge carrot to encourage whistle-blowers

美国证券交易委员会高额悬赏鼓励举报人

"TOO many people remain silent in the face of fraud," says Mary Schapiro, the chairman of America's Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). On May 25th she announced new rules to encourage corporate whistle-blowing. Inducements will include cash: 10-30% of fines of over $1m that result from tip-offs. The US Chamber of Commerce, a business lobby, calls it a "bounty programme" that will reward "amateur sleuths in search of a big payday". It isthreatening legal action to block it.

"太多人在面对欺诈行为时选择了沉默。"美国证券交易委员会(SEC)主席Mary Schapiro感叹道。5月25日，她公布了鼓励举报公司犯罪的新规定。举报的奖励将会包含现金：如果举报产生了100万美元以上的罚款，那么举报人可获得罚款金额的10-30%。企业游说组织美国商会将其称作"赏金计划"，奖励那些盼着一夜暴富的业余侦探。其威胁性会导致有人采取法律行动来阻止这一计划。

The new rules were required by the Dodd-Frank act, Congress's response to the financial crisis, which was passed last year. They follow an earlier effort to encourage employees to speak up. After Enron, an energy firm, collapsed in a flurry of fraud, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley act in 2002 which, among other things, protected whistle-blowers from retaliation.

国会为应对金融危机在去年通过了多德佛兰克金融改革法案(Dodd-Frank act)，这些新规定是应该法案的要求制定的。同时也延续了早就开始的鼓励公司员工站出来举报的做法。在能源公司安然(Enron)在连串的欺诈案件中轰然倒下之后，国会采取的善后措施中就包括通过了萨班-奥克利法案(Sarbanes-Oxley act)保护举报人免遭报复。

Employees have never found it easy to squeal on employers. Perhaps the most celebrated ofcorporate whistle-blowers, Sherron Watkins, a former executive at Enron, never went public with her prediction that the company might be brought down by fraud. She reported her concerns internally, and was ignored.

员工举报老板从来就不是件容易事。最著名的举报人，安然公司前高官Sherron Watkins，可能从没有将她对于公司会因诈骗倒闭的预测公布于众。她只是在公司内部提出了她的担忧，但是没有人理睬。

When the SEC released draft rules in November, businesses fretted that the financial rewards would prompt insiders to go straight to the commission, bypassing their firms' internalprocedures—especially since that would reduce the risk of being victimised by the boss or branded a "disgruntled employee". The new rules try to correct this, for example by allowing areward to be paid in some circumstances to whistle-blowers who only grumble internally.

当证券交易委员会在去年11月公布规定的草案时，公司担心金钱奖励会促使内部知情人越过内部程序直接向委员会举报，因为这样会降低被老板陷害或者被贴上"不满员工"标签的风险。新出台的规定试图改变这一状况，比如规定在一些情况下可以奖励只在内部举报没有外传的员工。

The chance of making a fortune may encourage speculative whistle-blowing in the hope of winning the lottery. Ms Schapiro's new Office of the Whistleblower may be deluged with useless tips. But even that might be better than the status quo.

靠举报发财的机会也许会刺激一心想发财的投机式举报。Schapiro女士的新举报官可能会被无效的线索淹没。但是即使是这样也好过现状。