Texas Juvenile Justice Department

• |WHAT:||The Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department are co-hosting a workshop to facilitate public dialogue on the 2023 Draft Merger Guidelines.|
  |WHEN:|
  Tuesday, September 5, 2023,
  |WHERE:||The event will be held online.
• A link to view the event will be posted to ftc.gov the day of the event.|
  |WHO:||The event will feature remarks by Aviv Nevo, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Economics, and Susan Athey, Chief Economist at the Justice Department, as well as two panel discussions.|
  |TWITTER:||Follow the discussion on Twitter using the hashtag #DraftMergerGuides|

• ABOK denies the allegations but has agreed to resolve the matter to avoid the cost and distraction of protracted litigation.
• ABOK is a community bank with full-service branches in Collinsville, Disney, Muskogee, Ramona and Skiatook.
• Established in 1998, American Bank of Oklahoma operates as a local, full-service bank, making decisions at the community level.
• With insurance, group benefits and mortgage lending services, it is a cornerstone in eastern Oklahoma, managing over $383 million in assets among six branches.

• South Africa is on the path to reforming its law on whistleblowing to provide improved protection for individuals who expose corruption and illegal activity.
• The country’s Department of Justice and Constitutional Development recently published a discussion document on the proposed reforms.
• This first step in reforming the country’s law on whistleblowers is to be welcomed.
• I am a company law professor with many years of research in corporate governance – including corruption and whistleblowing – in South Africa.

Financial incentives

• The discussion document rejects the idea of providing financial rewards to whistleblowers.
• It opts instead for a fund to assist those who are dismissed and who face severe financial hardship for blowing the whistle.
• While the fund may provide some relief to unemployed whistleblowers, it does not go far enough to give whistleblowers an incentive to come forward.
• Without adequate incentives, whistleblowers may hesitate to come forward and expose corruption.

Other proposals for reform

• This proposal is commendable because of the risks whistleblowers face in South Africa.
• Legal Aid South Africa should provide legal assistance to whistleblowers at the justice minister’s discretion.
• It is, however, crucial to establish effective processes and to avoid prolonged delays in addressing complaints.

Consolidated legislative framework

The main statutes governing whistleblowing in South Africa are the Protected Disclosures Act of 2000 and the Companies Act of 2008. But there are at least nine other statutes governing whistleblowing. These include:
• The complexity and vagueness may also discourage people from disclosing wrongdoing.
• The proposed reforms focus at this stage on enhancing the Protected Disclosures Act, but not the other statutes related to whistleblowing.
• Given South Africa’s staggering and escalating corruption levels, a strong legal framework is needed which both encourages whistleblowing and effectively protects whistleblowers.
• Hopefully, the final reforms will provide stronger encouragement and incentives for whistleblowers, considering the risks they face while bravely serving society.

• Both agencies encourage the public to review the draft and provide feedback through a public comment period that will last 60 days.
• “With these draft Merger Guidelines, we are updating our enforcement manual to reflect the realities of how firms do business in the modern economy.
• Today, we are issuing draft guidelines that are faithful to the law, which prevents mergers that threaten competition or tend to create monopolies.
• The draft guidelines build upon, expand, and clarify frameworks set out in previous versions.
• These guidelines are not mutually exclusive, and a given merger may implicate multiple guidelines.

• In January 2022, the agencies announced a broad initiative to evaluate potential updates and revisions to the Horizontal Merger Guidelines, issued in 2010, and the Vertical Merger Guidelines issued in 2020.
•  The draft Merger Guidelines also make clear that they are not a substitute for the law itself, and do not create new rights or obligations.
• The agencies will use the public comments to evaluate and update the draft before finalizing the guidelines.
• Visit the fact sheet on Draft Merger Guidelines.