SEC’s Whistleblower Program: Additional Actions Are Needed To Better Prepare for Future Program Growth, Increase Efficiencies, and Enhance Program Management, Report No. 575

Submitting OIG:

Securities and Exchange Commission OIG

Report Description:

Date Issued:

Monday, December 19, 2022

Agency Reviewed / Investigated:

Securities and Exchange Commission

Location(s):

Agency-Wide

Type of Report:

Audit

Questioned Costs:

Funds for Better Use:

Number of Recommendations:

View Document:

Attachment	Size
SECs-Whistleblower-Program-Additional-Actions-Needed-Report-No-575.pdf	1.49 MB

Related Open Recommendations

Recommendation Number	Recommendation Status	Significant Recommendation
1	Open	Yes
Take steps to improve follow-up processes related to developing initial drafts of attorney declarations including defining intervals for follow-up and procedures for consistently tracking follow-up communications with declarants.
2	Open	Yes
Develop and define in policies and procedures alerts and status reports generated within the modernized claims tracking system for tracking key steps throughout the whistleblower claims process.
3	Open	Yes
Develop an operating agreement (or charter) that includes rules and standards for the Claims Review Staff.
4	Open	Yes
Implement a process to independently validate that data manually entered into the modernized claims tracking system are accurate and match source documents, where available.
5	Open	Yes
Develop and document policies and procedures to ensure completeness of data in the modernized claims tracking system.
6	Open	Yes
Update the Whistleblower Public Hotline – Phone Call Policies and Procedures to account for documenting exceptions to the 24-business-hour rule.
7	Open	Yes
Establish monitoring controls to ensure that, in accordance with existing Office of the Whistleblower policy, all helpful whistleblowers are timely and consistently notified of Notice of Covered Action postings.
8	Open	Yes
Update policies and procedures to establish required timeframes for publicly posting the Commission’s Final Orders.

Recommendation Number

Recommendation Status

Significant Recommendation

Additional Details

Open

Yes

Take steps to improve follow-up processes related to developing initial drafts of attorney declarations including defining intervals for follow-up and procedures for consistently tracking follow-up communications with declarants.

Open

Yes

Develop and define in policies and procedures alerts and status reports generated within the modernized claims tracking system for tracking key steps throughout the whistleblower claims process.

Open

Yes