On February 5, 2014, the City Council approved an Ordinance amendment introduced by Mayor Emanuel, that becomes effective on March 5, 2014.  It requires every City contractor to report to the City’s Inspector General information concerning conduct  known to involve corrupt activity.  Knowing failure to report such activity constitutes an event of default under the contract.  To read the accompanying Press Release, click here 

The text of the amendment:  

2-156-018 Duty to report corrupt or unlawful activity.

(a) Every city employee or official shall report, directly and without undue delay, to the appropriate investigating authority any and all information concerning conduct which such employee or official knows or should reasonably know to involve corrupt or other unlawful activity (i) by another city employee or official which concerns such employee's or official's employment or office; or (ii) by any person dealing with the city which concerns the person's dealings with the city. Any employee or official who knowingly fails to report a corrupt or unlawful activity as required in this section shall be subject to employment sanctions, including discharge, in accordance with procedures under which the employee may otherwise be disciplined.

(b) Every city contractor shall report, directly and without undue delay, to the city's inspector general any and all information concerning conduct by any person which such contractor knows to involve corrupt activity. A city contractor’s knowing failure to report corrupt activity as required in this subsection (b) shall constitute an event of default under the contract. For purposes of this subsection (b), “corrupt activity” shall mean any conduct set forth in Subparagraph (a)(1), (2) or (3) of Section 1-23-020 of this Code. The standard for knowledge applied to the terms “knows” and “knowing” in this subsection (b) shall be the same standard applied to the terms “knowing” and “knowingly” in Section 1-22-010 of this Code.

(c) For purposes of this section, a report made to the appropriate investigating authority’s toll-free hotline hotline shall be considered to be a report under this section.