(1) An employee shall not directly or indirectly use or attempt to use the employee’s official authority or influence for the purpose of intimidating, threatening, coercing, commanding, influencing, or attempting to intimidate, threaten, coerce, command, or influence any individual for the purpose of interfering with the right of the individual to: (a) Disclose to the auditor (or representative thereof) or other public official, as defined in RCW 42.40.020, information concerning improper governmental action; or (b) identify rules warranting review or provide information to the rules review committee.

Terms Used In Washington Code 42.40.030

  • Auditor: means the office of the state auditor. See Washington Code 42.40.020
  • Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
  • Employee: means any individual employed or holding office in any department or agency of state government. See Washington Code 42.40.020
  • Improper governmental action: means any action by an employee undertaken in the performance of the employee's official duties:
Washington Code 42.40.020
  • Public official: means the attorney general's designee or designees; the director, or equivalent thereof in the agency where the employee works; an appropriate number of individuals designated to receive whistleblower reports by the head of each agency; or the executive ethics board. See Washington Code 42.40.020
  • Whistleblower: means :
    • Washington Code 42.40.020
    (2) Nothing in this section authorizes an individual to disclose information otherwise prohibited by law, except to the extent that information is necessary to substantiate the whistleblower complaint, in which case information may be disclosed to the auditor or public official, as defined in RCW 42.40.020, by the whistleblower for the limited purpose of providing information related to the complaint. Any information provided to the auditor or public official under the authority of this subsection may not be further disclosed.

    NOTES:

    Findings—Intent—2008 c 266: See note following RCW 42.40.020.
    Findings—Short title—Intent—1995 c 403: See note following RCW 34.05.328.
      Previous section
    Next section  
     Chapter 42.40 Contents