In our last Community & Associations Newsletter (
October 2019 edition) we brought attention to the requirement
that all public companies, including companies limited by
guarantee, must have a whistleblower policy in place by 1 January
2020.
An exemption to the law has been granted to small not-for-profit
organisations or charities with an annual revenue of $1 million or
less even though they operate using a company limited by
guarantee.
The argument is that that the disadvantage to such small
organisations would largely outweigh the advantages of adopting
whistleblower requirements in the first place.
However, small NFPs should continue to bear in mind that, even
though an exempt company limited by guarantee may not need a
whistleblower policy, the Corporations Act 2001 still extends
protection to a whistleblower who makes a disclosure irrespective
of the size of the company to which it relates.
