Ukraine introduced the institution of whistleblowers of corruption in 2014. Since 2020, the system has been improved: the whistleblower is now more protected and can count on a 10% reward if there is a court decision. This fall, the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court decided to compensate the remuneration of the “NABU agent.”
The NAPC calls this decision historic, writes LB.ua. And members of the anti-corruption committee of parliament predict that the institution of whistleblowers itself will work more efficiently. Especially after the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal was launched in September.
However, experts from the USAID project “Interaction” note that government bodies and legal entities are slowly joining the Unified Portal. Also, most Ukrainians do not know how they can become whistleblowers with specific rights of protection. Although surveys over the past two years indicate that the number of people willing to report corrupt officials is growing.
Who exactly can become an accuser? Why don't all applicants claim 10%? And how protected is the Unified Portal from personal data leakage?
The formation of the institution of whistleblowers
“Deal with a corrupt official - get 10%” is one of Vladimir Zelensky’s slogans in the spring of 2019. Already in the fall of that year, the President of Ukraine proposed to parliament a bill introducing a reward for information about corruption crimes - 10% of the monetary amount of the subject of the corruption crime or the amount of damage caused to the state.
On October 17, 2019, the Verkhovna Rada adopted relevant changes to the law on the prevention of corruption.
It came into force on January 1, 2020. But the general public still does not understand who the corruption whistleblowers are because it has not been publicly explained.
By law, this is an individual who:
– has information about possible facts of corruption offenses – factual data: about the circumstances of the offense, the place and time of its commission and the person who committed the offense;
– I am convinced of the reliability of this information;
– received this information during work, professional, economic, public, scientific activities, service or training.
“If at least one condition is not met, the person cannot be considered a whistleblower. Messages are considered, but the person does not acquire the status of an whistleblower, he is an applicant,” the Agency emphasized.
“That is, a whistleblower is not just any whistleblower about corruption, a complainant who is dissatisfied with something. A whistleblower is a person, an insider, who sees violations within the organization, has evidence and wants to report it, receiving immunity - protection of labor and other rights,” explains a former representative of the Department of Organization of Work on Preventing and Detecting Corruption of the NAPC, an expert on anti-corruption policy and protection of whistleblowers of the USAID Interaction project Elena Karpova.
Expert on anti-corruption policy and whistleblower protection of the USAID Interaction project Elena Karpova
That is, a person who saw a neighbor’s judge’s new Tesla, for example, cannot become a whistleblower. Of course, the applicant has the right to report the relevant fact to NABU, NACP or law enforcement agencies, who can verify the accuracy of the data specified in the declaration. But if a judge offers a colleague an undue benefit for a necessary decision, and the fellow judge informs about this, the applicant will become an accuser.
Whistleblowers receive this status once they report corruption. Together with their family members, they are under state protection. By law, they can be provided with protection.
Until the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal was in operation (more on this below), it was possible to report corruption violations by paper or email, by phone or during a personal meeting through:
– the head or anti-corruption representative of the organization where the whistleblower works;
– specially authorized entities in the field of anti-corruption, pre-trial investigation bodies, other government bodies, institutions and organizations;
– Media, journalists, public associations, trade unions, etc.
Who is entitled to 10% reward?
It is also important that not all whistleblowers are entitled to a reward. The law defines it for a whistleblower who “notified a corruption crime, the monetary value of the subject of which or the damage caused to the state from which is 5 thousand or more times higher than the minimum subsistence level for able-bodied persons established by law at the time the crime was committed.” That is, we are talking about bribes of more than 13 million UAH.
The amount of the whistleblower's remuneration is 10% of the monetary amount of the subject of the corruption crime or the amount of damage caused to the state from the crime only after the court has rendered a guilty verdict. However, it cannot exceed three thousand minimum wages. That is, now it is no more than 20 million hryvnia.
The head of the development department of the NAPC Whistleblowing Institute, Anastasia Renkas, believes that “the reward for the whistleblower is provided as a kind of encouragement and compensation for the fact that he did experience inconvenience when he reported.”
She recalled that in October of this year, the court for the first time decided to pay a reward to the whistleblower of corruption - “NABU agent” Yevgeny Shevchenko in the case of a record bribe to the leadership of NABU and SAP. Shevchenko himself said that he exposed the crime three years ago, so he will not receive the declared 500 thousand dollars, but only 350 thousand - in accordance with the size of three thousand minimum wages in 2020.
Anastasia Renkas assesses the first court decision on the payment of remuneration as clearly historical and the first precedent. And its appearance only three years later is associated with the complexity of existing pre-trial and judicial processes.
Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy Yaroslav Yurchyshyn (Golos faction) also agrees that the decision is very important because it actually confirms that the institution of whistleblowers is operational in Ukraine.
“We also waited a long time for the first court decisions on illegal enrichment and civil confiscation. Of course, I would like more court decisions on payments to whistleblowers. But don’t forget that the country is at war, there are other challenges, so for now you need to be a little patient. However, there are already positive examples. In particular, to protect the labor rights of whistleblowers, which are renewed at work after the facts of exposure. And this is inspiring,” adds Yaroslav Yurchyshyn.
Unified whistleblower reporting portal
On February 4, 2021, parliament adopted a law on streamlining certain issues of whistleblower protection (No. 3450). He intended to create a Unified Portal of Whistleblower Reports. But in March 2021, Vladimir Zelensky vetoed this law. In June 2021, the Rada adopted it with the president’s proposals.
For almost two years, NAPC has repeatedly announced the launch of the portal. By the way, similar special Internet resources for whistleblowers of corruption, including anonymous ones, operate in many countries. For example, in the UK there is a government portal GOV.UK Whistleblowing, which allows you to anonymously report corruption. In Canada, the Integrity Regime Whistleblower Hotline allows you to report on corrupt practices in government agreements. In Germany, the Whistleblower-Portal allows you to anonymously report corruption and other illegal activities in public procurement.
Finally, at the beginning of July 2023, the NASC began testing the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal, which was developed with the support of USAID Interaction. The head of NAPC, Alexander Novikov, said that the resource will be the only entry point for those who anonymously or publicly want to fight corruption. At the same time, it was planned that about 90 thousand users would be connected to the portal - central and local government bodies, legal entities.
The portal became fully operational on September 6th. Ten government bodies immediately joined the resource, Novikov noted. However, now, after more than three months of work, this circle has expanded to only four dozen. In particular, the NACP, NABU, SBI, National Police, Office of the Prosecutor General, Constitutional Court, Accounts Chamber, part of the ministries, the High Council of Justice, the Supreme Court, the National Commission of Electronic Communications, regional state military administrations, and JSC "Ukrainian Defense Industry" were involved.
Elena Karpova points out several reasons for this dynamics. Firstly, the portal was launched precisely when declarations and special inspections resumed; secondly, organizations are wary of a new IT product and expect more active communication from NAPC (webinars, video instructions on how to work). Or it could be fears that the number of reports of corruption will increase significantly and the work to process the information and transfer it to the competent authorities.
Head of the development department of the NAPC exposer institute Anastasia Renkas
However, Anastasia Renkas assures that the connection is taking place in accordance with the priority plan for all organs.
“To say that few organizations are connected is not entirely correct. It is important that now on the portal we can see general statistics on the number of requests. Because before, each organization conducted it for itself. Now, thanks to the functionality of the portal, we see that since September there have already been more than 600 such messages. The largest number of them, more than 500, were sent by applicants to the NACP,” noted a representative of the NACP.
And she emphasized that the very quality of messages has already changed: “People don’t just write, submit information or applications. They really get acquainted with the functionality of the portal, which contains many tips. When already at the first of five authorization steps there are algorithms for where and how to submit information. People are starting to figure out how to become a whistleblower, they are reading here the law on the prevention of corruption. Therefore, we can already say that this is a definite victory for the portal.”
At the same time, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn predicts that after the launch of a portal with the ability to report anonymously, the institute of whistleblowers will earn better.
“So we can only be glad that whistleblowers will receive a greater level of protection. Of course, for the institute to provide maximum efficiency, high-quality work is needed not only by the NACP, but also by all anti-corruption bodies. Therefore, this is a step forward, but we still have a lot of work,” the people’s deputy emphasizes.
Security of personal information of whistleblowers: special codes
Elena Karpova says that the system of reporting corruption is protected from leakage of personal data and disclosure of information about whistleblowers.
According to her, a person goes through 5 steps on the portal when submitting a message. After which it is generated in PDF format with a 14-digit identifier, which has three letters and 11 numbers. If a person reports anonymously, he may not even indicate an email. However, it also receives an identifier.
Anastasia Renkas adds that even if a third party receives this identifier, they will not see the applicant’s personal data on the site. Only the status of the message being processed.
At the same time, Elena Karpova advises creating an email for anonymous applicants who want to receive detailed information about the consideration of the message. And all potential whistleblowers must provide the most comprehensive data about possible facts of corruption, supporting them with documents, photos and videos. Yaroslav Yurchyshyn calls for this, because the maximum list of evidence will guarantee that “the relevant authorities will not be able to dismiss the statement by saying that there is not enough information.”
Ukrainians are increasingly ready to report corrupt officials
Tolerance for corruption in Ukrainian society is decreasing, but the willingness to fight this phenomenon, on the contrary, is growing. According to the results of a sociological survey of the “Rating” group, conducted with the support of the USAID project “VzaemoDiya”, in November-December 2022, that is, even before the launch of the Unified Portal, 87% of respondents declared their readiness to report the fact of corruption through the Unified Portal (definitely ready - 37%, rather ready - 50%). At the same time, 74% believed that receiving financial compensation would encourage citizens to report such crimes. Only 23% were unsure of such an initiative.
A nationwide survey, which was conducted already in 2023 under the “Join!” program for promoting social activism. together with the USAID project “Interaction”, demonstrated that public approval of citizens who file complaints about corruption with authorized bodies has increased. This percentage has increased from 71% in 2021 to 81% in 2023. And the rate of Ukrainians who declare their readiness to defend their rights in interaction with bureaucrats has reached 52% - the highest level since 2007.
Anastasia Rencas believes that the attitude towards potential whistleblowers of corruption has changed due to the full-scale invasion. “Ukrainians began not only to look at all the problems, but also to fight them. There is a keen sense of justice and the fight for it, so they use all avenues to achieve this. And the emergence of a new mechanism - the Unified Portal - gives a certain impetus,” she is convinced.
Head of the development department of the NAPC exposer institute Anastasia Renkas
Elena Karpova adds that the willingness to engage in accusatory behavior has actually increased. “But there is still a lack of information campaigns and educational events so that people understand who whistleblowers are, what guarantees are available for their protection and how they can report corruption.
However, even if the applicant is confused and unable to fill out the form on the portal, he can always report possible facts of corruption by phone, by email, in person, or by regular letter. And the applicant is also guaranteed that the message must be entered into the Unified Portal. It won’t get lost anywhere,” the expert assures.
