Ukraine strengthens anti-corruption efforts with first whistleblower rewards and new reporting guide News
Plokhish, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ukraine strengthens anti-corruption efforts with first whistleblower rewards and new reporting guide

Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) unveiled a new guide for its corruption notification channel on Thursday, giving whistleblowers a clear path to report misconduct. This follows the recent completion of payments for Ukraine’s first two whistleblower award cases, which were finalized in 2023 but only recently saw payouts.

Ukraine implemented the whistleblower award law in 2019, which offers a powerful incentive to those who report corruption like bribes or kickbacks. Under this law, whistleblowers can earn up to 10% of the recovered funds, with rewards capped at a substantial $500,000.

The NACP characterized its first whistleblower award as “a historical event that fundamentally establishes the formation of a whistle-blowing culture in Ukraine and encourages whistle-blowers to report on the facts of corruption that they have managed to record.”

“Disclosure is one of the most effective methods of combating corruption,” NACP added. “And an effective means of counteracting it is the timely informing of the competent authorities about the facts of the commission of corruption crimes. The practice of civilized countries has proven that exposing corruption is the basis for building safe and prosperous societies.”

The first reward payment was issued on October 4 to a whistleblower who is currently serving in the military. Back in 2020-2021, he was the director of the Ministry of Defense’s internal audit department. In 2021, he reported to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) that he had been offered an illicit bribe of UAH 24 million. The proposal aimed to sway him into favoring a particular LLC by appointing specialists for an unscheduled audit of a state contract’s execution.

The second whistleblower award payment was made on October 18, tied to a high-stakes bribery case. Top officials at NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) were offered a staggering $6 million to shut down criminal proceedings. The case involved serious criminal charges against a former Minister of Ecology under Ukraine’s Criminal Code.

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