Whistleblower Protection Policy Adopted May, 2012

The whistleblower protection policy is being implemented for the FMEA to comply with the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002 (Sarbanes-Oxley). This provision in the legislation applies to all organizations, not just those that operate for profit.

An employee or volunteer of the FMEA, who reports waste, fraud, or abuse will not be terminated or otherwise retaliated against for making the report.

The report will be investigated and even if determined not to be waste, fraud, or abuse, the individual making the report will not be retaliated against. There will be no punishment for reporting problems – including termination of employment, demotion, suspension, harassment, failure to consider the employee for promotion, or any other kind of discrimination.

There are several ways to make a report of suspected waste, fraud, or abuse:

• Call or email the executive director or president of the association

FMEA Actions in Response

Whether reported to the president or the executive director, the executive committee shall investigate the allegation. As part of that investigation, the executive committee may 

• Interview employees
• Interview vendors
• Interview any others mentioned in the allegation.

Following the investigation, the FMEA Executive Committee shall –

• Provide the person filing a report with a summary of our findings.
• Take steps to deal with the issue addressed, including making operational or personnel changes.
• If warranted, contact law enforcement to deal with any criminal activities.