In Barker v. State Ins. Fund, 2001 OK 94, 40 P.3d 463, the Supreme Court took the opportunity to clarify an apparent misunderstanding that internal whistleblowers were not part of the protected class. The Court stated: "Oklahoma law protects both internal and external reporting of whistle-blowers who establish a sufficient public policy violation from retaliatory discharge." Id., 2001 OK 94 at P16, 40 P.3d at 468. The task is to decide "between claims that genuinely involve the mandates of public policy that are actionable and ordinary disputes between employee and employer that are not." Id. According to the Barker Court, the public policy may be grounded in a statute or employee actions, such as reporting fraudulent activity or criminal misuse of funds. Id.