Ukrainian Institute for the Future -

On Friday, September 13 the Verkhovna Rada in the first reading adopted the draft law №1010 “On amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On corruption prevention” concerning corruption whistleblowers”.

Thus, the Parliament while working at “turbo speed” once again brought the country to another red line, this time – in the field of combating corruption.

The reason for concern, along with foreseeable financial incentives for whistleblowers, is the probability of methodical effort of authorized state bodies to increase the indicators, which, according to the norms of the draft, are reflected in the annual anti-corruption report (the number of reports of whistleblowers, the number of whistleblowers; the number of persons, who were tried for the criminal corruption offenses or offenses related to corruption and the court’s condemnatory judgement against them entered into legal force, as well as persons who were sanctioned with administrative measure for the commission of an administrative offense related to corruption, the proceedings on which were carried out due to the reports of whistleblowers; information on the number of persons who needed the protection of their rights and interests as whistleblowers).

The abovementioned, in our opinion, indicates a rather weak and ineffective nature of the proposed changes from the point of view of anti-corruption activities, and, at the same time, very dangerous for society in general and for a number of active citizens, given the conditions of the new political reality.

Andriy Pomazanov, the UIF expert on the reform of the law-enforcement authorities, judicial bodies and judicial branch