Rewarding whistleblowers for their disclosures with cash is not on the cards, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici told the Times of Malta.

“I feel this would raise an issue of credibility. If you are paying someone to give you information then that information is brought into question,” he said.

Dr Bonnici was contacted for his reaction to US whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld who last month told the Times of Malta in an interview that if Malta wanted “quality insider information” it was going to have to cough up some serious money.

A former banker at UBS, he served two and a half years in a US prison for conspiring to evade income taxes.

The position taken by Europe seems to be against paying for such information

Mr Birkenfeld is, however, mostly known for having divulged details of schemes that the Swiss bank used to encourage American citizens to dodge their taxes – and he says he did it all with intimate knowledge only someone from within the bank could ever have access to.

He blew the biggest financial-crime-whistle in US history and his revelations not only prompted an overhaul of Swiss banking laws but it helped the US Treasury recover some €14 billion in unpaid taxes.

Did he get anything for his trouble? “I sure did” – about €97 million in reward money, “a relatively small slice of the total haul made by the authorities”.

And, to Mr Birkenfeld, this financial incentive is the cornerstone of successful whistleblowing policy.

Dr Bonnici, however, disagrees. He told this newspaper that he had raised the issue at the latest meeting of EU’s Justice Council, bouncing the idea off a number of his EU counterparts.

“I found there wasn’t a single EU member state that paid whistleblowers.

“The position taken by Europe seems to be against paying for such information,” he said.

University lecturer David Fabri shared the sentiment, saying rewards for whistleblowers reduced them to “mercenaries”.

In a chapter recently published in an academic publication, the senior lecturer in the Faculty of Law, said: “Such an approach would undermine the true value of speaking up against wrong-doing by adding what is truly an unnecessary mercenary element to it.”

He goes on to say that “true whistleblowers” do not ask for a reward, but they only ask for their disclosure to be kept secret and for their employment and personal safety to be adequately safeguarded.

Dr Fabri is critical of the law, insisting it does not afford adequate protection to whistleblowers. Asked about this, Dr Bonnici disagreed, saying the law protected those who come forward from losing their jobs. This was far better than the laws in many other EU states.

The law

Whistleblowing in Malta is today regulated by its own law, the Protection of Whistleblowers Act, introduced in 2013.

The law establishes a number of specific procedures in terms of which potential whistleblowers may disclose information on improper practices by their employers or other employees.

It prohibits “detrimental action against whistleblowers”, withdrawing immunity and instead allowing a court to mitigate punishment against whistleblowers involved in the crime themselves.

It’s the first comprehensive law on the subject in Malta.

It applies to both public and private sector employees and covers former employees and voluntary workers too.

And, although self-employed people are not referred to in the law, it does apply to “contractor or sub-contractors who perform work or supply services”.

The current whistleblowing legislation does not offer those who come forward with information a reward.

However, the legislation does offer compensation for damages. The compensation is not defined in the law.