August 17, 2018
I am concerned that the proposed rules are will not affect the changes desired by Whistleblowers and will result in a decrease in the effectiveness of the Whistleblower program.
In addition to the comments by others, the proposed rule changes appear to contradict the plain reading of the statute, congressional intent, and legislative history.
Moreover, the proposed changes to allow summary denials and the subjective exclusion of "reasonably apparent" information will not result in a drastic improvement of Whistleblower processing times.
Indeed, a significant portion of the time spent reviewing a Whistleblower claim is spent waiting for the Regional SEC Staff to provide information to the Whistleblower Office.
The proposed rule changes do nothing to address the unreasonably long amount of time it takes to obtain all the information necessary for the Claims Review Staff.
If the SEC is honest in its desire to decrease the time Whistleblowers spend waiting for a claim to be processed a more efficient process should be used that removes unnecessary waiting time. The proposed rule changes will have a limited effect on waiting times but will cause significant doubt for would-be Whistleblowers.
To this end, I respectfully request that the SEC do a complete study to quantitatively determine why a backlog of claims exists, especially since that Whistleblower office was setup to handle 30,000 tips per year. Based on the SEC's disclosures and operations the delays are more likely due to ineffective and inefficient claims processes and data tracking systems - yet, unfortunately, the proposed rule changes do nothing to fix this issue.
I would like to ask: What is the average time the Whistleblower Office and Claims Review Staff takes to obtain all the necessary information, documents, or statements from Regional Offices and Staff?