A FORMER policeman from York has set up a whistleblowing hotline for concerned employees.

Adam Griggs, of Elvington, has formed TheHotline Ltd to which he hopes responsible employers will subscribe.

Through his organisation, whistleblowers can sound the alarm on issues such as suspected fraud, theft, breaches of health and safety, bullying and sexual harassment.

Mr Griggs, 30, who left the police force after five years to become a chartered accountant, later worked for the Leeds office of Andersen, auditors of Enron, which collapsed amid an accounting scandal two years ago.

Since then, Mr Griggs has worked for Deloittes, which took over Andersen business in the UK, and later for York-based Persimmon housebuilders as assistant risk manager.

"But all the while I wanted to find a way to ensure that an Enron couldn't happen in the UK," he said.

The solution was formulated by him and Owen Lightowlers, his former boss at Persimmon.

The principle of TheHotline is simple: Employees of subscribing organisations can contact the hotline 24 hours a day, seven days a week via a free phone call or secure website to report concerns about malpractice. Mr Griggs said: "In Britain, the Combined Code On Corporate Governance requires plc boards regularly to review whistleblowing arrangements and we are providing them with this ready-made service.

"It enables employers to demonstrate that they're upholding the highest of standards. In the US, services such as TheHotline have existed for some time and find that they receive most of their calls outside office hours, so organisations wishing to set up a similar service internally will find it quite an expensive business."

It also enables employers to avoid having complaints within their organisations aired in the media.

"Employees who feel they can't take their concerns elsewhere often approach third parties. In such circumstances, the adverse publicity can do untold damage to the employer, as well as to those accused and even the whistleblower," said Mr Griggs.

"A subscription to TheHotline provides employees who previously felt they had nowhere else to turn, with a practical and safe alternative," he said, adding that TheHotline would naturally pass on to the police any complaint which made them legally and morally obliged to do so, but he suspected these would be very rare.

Subscription will depend on the size of organisation and the number of employees but, he said, the savings employers will make in reduced and prevented fraud and by reduction in the number of tribunals would easily outweigh the cost.

Updated: 11:15 Friday, September 03, 2004