WHY OUTSOURCE

I am perhaps, and may be forgiven for, not being entirely objective in this respect. It is a widely held view that independence is a cornerstone of any effective disclosure service and this was even highlighted many years ago in the report of the Presidential Commission in the USA subsequent to the Challenger disaster.

Notwithstanding all the evidence that exists to support an independently managed outsourced service there are still a number of major organisations that insist on an in-house service. Many insist that they don’t want any external party to have knowledge of their internal secrets! This argument sadly doesn’t inspire any confidence in me as, whether intentional or not, it creates the perception that the entity may not really be committed to transparency, integrity and openness. It casts a shadow and begs the question as to what the entity may wish to hide.

The few internal services that I have observed all fail dismally when measured against the points listed below to support an outsourced service. One even had an answering machine situated in an open plan office where incoming messages could be heard by anyone within earshot!

The following points set out the case for an outsourced disclosure service and you, the reader, be the judge

	An Outsourced Service Provider (OSP) manages his service as his principal business and not as an additional task or a side-line activity. Many have dedicated management teams with years of experience in managing the service.
	OSPs are extremely cost effective and few in-house offerings, providing the same levels of service, can be favourably compared.
	An OSP employs dedicated skilled professionals answering calls in a consistent manner. Staff members employed by many OSPs are thoroughly vetted and may even be required to undergo periodic and random truth verification testing.
	An OSP is totally independent and objective and conveys to the subscriber exactly what is reported via the communication channels as accurately as possible without fear or favour. Most OSPs offer differentiated reporting which enables reports involving senior management to be escalated to a non-executive director, the chairman of the audit committee or another independent person.
	Most OSPs offer a multilingual “live” service 24 hours a day 365 days a year including all public holidays and weekends.
	A range of communication channels is normally provided so that the stakeholder can make the disclosure using the means most convenient to him. The following are typical channels of communication
A telephone number unique to each subscriber which is normally a Freecall (0800) or a Sharecall (0860) number so that the caller incurs no or limited cost in making the call. These numbers can be so called Golden Numbers such as 0800-BLOGGS which are easy to remember. Freecall (0800) numbers are still widely favoured but as calls to these numbers (as the name indicates) are made at no cost to the caller, they result in many nuisance calls being made which “clutters” the system and ties up the OSP staff. The Sharecall (0860) number costs the caller the cost of a local call and experience indicates that this reduces nuisance calls while not dissuading a motivated caller from making the disclosure. The reason why each subscriber is normally allocated a unique number is that the technology management system recognises the call as referring to a specific subscriber and enables the calls to be answered in a specific way and for accurate statistics of all the calls received to be generated automatically. A generic Freecall fax number is normally provided. These numbers are seldom abused. The downside of a fax is that the OSP can normally identify the number of the fax machine that was used to send the disclosure. This is problematic if the person making the disclosure wishes to remain entirely anonymous but can be overcome by using an “anonymous” fax machine from somewhere such as Postnet. A unique e-mail address is allocated to each subscriber which is normally bloggs@thenameoftheOSP.co.za thus identifying the subscriber. A Freepost address is made available to enable stakeholders, who may not have access to other communication channels, to make a disclosure. This channel is often used where a stakeholder may wish to send evidence to support a disclosure. Most OSPs have a facility on their website where a stakeholder can simply complete a template and submit a disclosure. This is a useful facility as, if it is properly designed, the person making the disclosure can’t be traced. Some of the larger subscribers have links on their own websites where stakeholders can be taken to their OSPs website and make a disclosure.
	An OSP that provides an effective service will have a technology solution in place which will ensure excellent security and have an Un-interrupted Power Supply (UPS) unit as well as a generator or inverter to ensure that it can provide an uninterrupted service 24 hours a day. This solution will also ensure that all disclosures made by telephone are recorded digitally and stored so that these recorded calls can be accessed at some later stage should a dispute arise or should the details of the call need to be reviewed.
	An OSP, because it operates at arms-length from the specific entity, ensures that the possibility of a caller being identified by his voice is extremely remote. This ensures that should a caller wish to remain entirely anonymous (even to the OSP) he can do so and avoid the possibility of being victimised. It is important to mention at this stage that there are some callers who, for whatever reason, wish to remain entirely anonymous. Others are happy to be identified and make an open disclosure. The vast majority of callers agree to provide the PSP with their identity and contact details but request that these details are not passed on to the subscriber. From all the parties point of view this is an excellent option as it enable the OSP to act as the bridge between the subscriber and the person making the disclosure on an ongoing basis without the identity of the caller ever being made known to the subscriber. This is very important when follow-up information may be required and when the subscriber may wish to pay the person making the disclosure a reward.
	Malicious disclosures, when they are received by the OSP, can be dealt with professionally and filtered on behalf of the subscriber.
	An added benefit of using an OSP is that patterns and modus operandi as well as details of syndicate activity and in some cases even details of specific disclosures can be shared among subscribers in related industries. The OSP can also share case studies and best practice with subscribers.
	Through its experience the OSP can provide subscribers with advice regarding the promotion of the disclosure service among its stakeholders including creative ideas that have proved to be successful with other subscribers.
	The OSP could manage a reward programme on behalf of subscribers. To ensure that the person making the disclosure remains anonymous to the subscriber the reward can be paid by the OSP to the person who has made the disclosure in such a manner that any tax is deducted and paid to SARS before the reward is paid. This will mean that the person being paid the reward will not have to list the reward as revenue received on his tax return. The subscriber paying the reward will receive a VAT invoice for “Management Services” which he can bring to book in the normal manner.