There have been calls for a proper whistleblowing system within EA. I guess if I’d had someone I could report to as there is for community issues, then perhaps I would have.
I made a prediction market, did a little investigating, but I didn’t really see a way to do things with the little suspicions I had. That seems pretty damning.
I don’t know how much effort it would be to set up a “proper” community-wide whistleblowing system across many organisations, but perhaps some low-hanging fruit would be CEA’s community health team having a separate anonymous form specifically for anonymous suspicions of this kind that wouldn’t require legal protection (as in your case? because you’re not an FTX employee?).
Maybe the team already has an anonymous form but I couldn’t find it from a quick look at the CEA website, so maybe it should be more prominent, and in any case I think it may be worth encouraging sharing this kind of info more explicitly now.
To point out what key features that EA may take seriously if setting up an Internal Audit Team is in its future plans based on standards
The internal audit activity must be independent, and internal auditors must be objective in performing their work. (Performance Standards)
The chief audit executive must report to a level within the organization that allows the internal audit activity to fulfill its responsibilities. The chief audit executive must confirm to the board, at least annually, the organizational independence of the internal audit activity. (Performance Standards)
The chief audit executive must effectively manage the internal audit activity to ensure it adds value to the organization. (Attribute Standards)
The internal audit activity must evaluate the effectiveness and contribute to the improvement of risk management processes. (Attribute Standards)
There are many more standards that acts as safeguards to how an internal audit activity be done objectively and prevents large scale errors or frauds to happen.
These SOP in Internal Audit are proven methods ran by almost all large corporations and banks all over the world.
I know very little about these things, but yeah I would think if serious money is involved, it may be good to have someone with experience at one of the Big 4 accounting firms (or similar) have a position in these orgs.
There have been calls for a proper whistleblowing system within EA. I guess if I’d had someone I could report to as there is for community issues, then perhaps I would have.
I made a prediction market, did a little investigating, but I didn’t really see a way to do things with the little suspicions I had. That seems pretty damning.
This comment seems to support the idea that a whistleblowing system would’ve helped: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/xafpj3on76uRDoBja/the-ftx-future-fund-team-has-resigned-1?commentId=NbevNWixq3bJMEW7b
I don’t know how much effort it would be to set up a “proper” community-wide whistleblowing system across many organisations, but perhaps some low-hanging fruit would be CEA’s community health team having a separate anonymous form specifically for anonymous suspicions of this kind that wouldn’t require legal protection (as in your case? because you’re not an FTX employee?).
Maybe the team already has an anonymous form but I couldn’t find it from a quick look at the CEA website, so maybe it should be more prominent, and in any case I think it may be worth encouraging sharing this kind of info more explicitly now.
It would have to be significantly more independent than the CEA community health team for it to be valuable.
Ah yes—makes sense!
The community health team does have an anonymous form. Thanks for the observation that it wasn’t that easy to find—we’ll be working on this.
The whistleblower system is a good idea. But Internal Audit Reviews done through International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing by an Independent EA Internal Audit Team is still the best solution in ensuring the quality of EA procedures across all EA organizations.
If you want I’d like to see what you think the most important points of that doc are.
Hi Nathan,
To point out what key features that EA may take seriously if setting up an Internal Audit Team is in its future plans based on standards
The internal audit activity must be independent, and internal auditors must be objective in performing their work. (Performance Standards)
The chief audit executive must report to a level within the organization that allows the internal audit activity to fulfill its responsibilities. The chief audit executive must confirm to the board, at least annually, the organizational independence of the internal audit activity. (Performance Standards)
The chief audit executive must effectively manage the internal audit activity to ensure it adds value to the organization. (Attribute Standards)
The internal audit activity must evaluate the effectiveness and contribute to the improvement of risk management processes. (Attribute Standards)
There are many more standards that acts as safeguards to how an internal audit activity be done objectively and prevents large scale errors or frauds to happen.
These SOP in Internal Audit are proven methods ran by almost all large corporations and banks all over the world.
All the best,
Miguel
I know very little about these things, but yeah I would think if serious money is involved, it may be good to have someone with experience at one of the Big 4 accounting firms (or similar) have a position in these orgs.