Professional Ethics: The Role of the “Whistleblower”

This is the second of a three-part series on professional ethics in NDT. This article was written for ASNT Pulse by Ronald T. Nisbet.

After re-reading the ethics articles I had written for The NDT Technician (TNT) newsletter in 2008 and 2009, I recognized an important missing element. It is easy to be an “armchair” observer of situations where unethical behaviors in NDT went unreported, but the reasons why were not examined. In many cases the technician or the assistant can be an observer and find themselves in a quandary as to how to become the “whistleblower.”

The term whistleblower attached itself to law enforcement officials in the 19th century because they used a whistle to alert the public or fellow police. Sports referees, who use a whistle to indicate an illegal or foul play, also were called whistleblowers.

In a real-life situation, the number of observers is usually very limited and may have a complex interest in the process. They can see clearly that an action has illegal, detrimental, and/or dangerous repercussions, and they have an ethical duty to report it.

It might be possible to become the whistleblower, report this situation, and remain unidentified, but there are many situations where they would not remain unidentified. There is the perceived risk in reporting, the breaking of the “group secrecy.” Because of this, the US government created a requirement for the preservation of the identity of the whistleblower.

The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 was enacted to protect US federal employees who disclose “government illegality, waste, and corruption” from adverse consequences related to their employment. This act provides protection from retaliation to whistleblowers who may receive demotions, pay cuts, or be replaced.

In the world of NDT, field technicians may conduct their inspections in relative obscurity. NDT teams are small, usually composed of two people with a lead technician and an assistant. The assistant is often a trainee who can be intimidated because of their subordinate experience and is reluctant to report any possible unethical actions.

In one of my previous articles on ethics (“Falsifying and Failure to Report,” TNT, Vol 8, No. 3), I gave several examples of situations where the ethics violations lead to dramatic situations which exposed the ethical misbehaviors. Few if any of these examples were divulged by one of the nonoffending members of the “team.”

Examples

In this blog post, I am offering several examples from personal situations where I had the opportunity to be a whistleblower and did not always report unethical behaviors.

In Scotland I worked in a pub as a bartender. Scotch whisky was sold from bottles hung upside down with a device that controlled the amount to be dispensed. The bottles were clearly labeled and the customer would request a particular brand, which the bartender would dispense from the corresponding bottle. There was a cellar below the pub and I observed the head bartender filling the bottles, each with a different label, from the same whisky cask. I convinced myself that there was nothing I could do about it and I might lose my job. I did lose the opportunity to be a whistleblower.

Some years ago I worked in Burgundy, France for a company that purchased wines from the growers, stored them in barrels until properly aged, bottled the wines, and sold them with their provenance on the label. I was occasionally invited to join in wine tastings. The tastings consisted of comparing the actual wine and its vintage with blended wines to determine which blend was closest in taste to the actual wine. When the best match was determined, that blend was bottled and sold as the actual vintage wine. There was no attempt to be surreptitious and it appeared to be a normal way of producing a larger quantity of that particular highly sought vineyard. I was a witness but had no foundation for being a whistleblower. When I questioned the practice, I was told that it was a normal and ethical process, although I believed that it was neither normal nor ethical.

Later, as an ultrasonic technician, I observed a behavior which was not only unethical but clearly unlawful. I was aboard a tanker en route to a shipyard in Newcastle, England. The ship anchored off the west coast of Scotland and cleaned the cargo tanks by dumping the accumulated oily waste over the side of the ship. The owner was aboard and took command over the captain to order the crew to conduct the illegal dumping. When we arrived at the shipyard, I made contact with the authorities, who challenged the owner who denied the reported actions. Without additional witnesses or evidence, the authorities could not proceed further. The owner refused to pay for the inspection work I had accomplished. Whistleblower identified, wrongdoer escapes consequences.

A more recent incident occurred in a Gulf Coast refinery. A two-person team was conducting thickness measurements on selected points for corrosion monitoring. It was a typical Gulf Coast summer day—hot and humid. The last set of measurements was to be taken on top of a tower. The lead technician had the choice of either waiting until the following day to take the measurements or climbing the tower and completing the required measurements. He had a copy of the previous measurements and instead decided to write in measurements that were similar, saving the climb and completing his assignment. This is called “pencil whipping.”

Failure to provide the current measurement would deny the data required to project the replacement of a corroded pipe. However, this section of pipe had been recently replaced and the analyst immediately noticed that the measurements provided by the technician were dramatically different from those of the actual replacement pipe. Busted!

The consequences were that the technician was terminated and the assistant, who was too intimidated to report the actions of his lead technician, had disciplinary actions taken. The incident was reviewed with the entire NDT personnel. The responsibilities of all members of inspection teams were stressed together with whistleblower safeguards. Other incidents of unethical behaviors were quoted and it was also pointed how frequently the misbehavior was detected.

Conclusion

As I know from experience, there are often powerful reasons that make people shrink from becoming a whistleblower, but the ethical reasons and potential catastrophic consequences must outweigh our temerity and hesitation to report the incident.