SEC's Whistleblower Program: Additional Actions Are Needed To Better Prepare for Future Program Growth, Increase Efficiencies, and Enhance Program Management (Report No. 575)

SEC Office of Inspector General audit report No. 575, 19 Dec 2022 (43 pp.; management comments pp. 39-42 are images, read by OCR): SEC whistleblower programme growth and controls, FY2017-FY2021. Contains: cumulative figures (sanctions ordered $6.3 billion, more than $1.5 billion returned to investors, more than $1.3 billion awarded to over 300 individuals); Table 1 (tips, claims, individuals awarded and amount awarded per FY 2017-2021 with totals); Figure 2 (tips FY2011-2021); Figure 3 (days from NoCA close to draft declaration and total processing time, before/after May 2019); Figure 4 (claims received vs processed FY2017-2021); backlog (299 old claims processed FY2020-21, 151 still open Sept 2022); OWB staff (about 16 in FY2017, at least 25 in FY2021); rules (threshold, 10-30%, $5m max-award presumption, 90-day claim deadline, 30/60/30-day steps, $300m fund replenishment); rule-amendment dates; hotline (15,087 voicemails FY2017-21; over 30,000 calls returned since 2011); 98 Final Orders in FY2021; one award of about $500,000; audit-sample control findings and eight recommendations. Tables checked: Table 1 columns and Figure 4 add to their totals; 230+299 = FY2020+FY2021 processed. Also added: 89% use of the max-award presumption (relayed, indicator proposed by usa9). Not recorded: shares of the 29-package audit sample (51% of time on declarations, 13% approved with most CRS members absent, 96% adopted unchanged, 41% delayed 122-852 days), 47 outreach engagements, 438 claims packages in scope, hotline timeliness splits beyond the note, 14 late Final Order postings, the $159,000 data-entry error.