Problem

As a result of improvements to the legislation on the protection of corruption whistleblowers in October 2019 and June 2021, the guarantees for the protection of corruption whistleblowers were strengthened, mechanisms for the implementation of the relevant guarantees were defined, and financial incentives were introduced for citizens to encourage them to report corruption. However, so far the positive effect of the regulatory consolidation of these guarantees is insignificant, due to the low level of public awareness of possible ways to report corruption and the procedures for reviewing such reports, distrust in the quality of the review process and lack of confidence in the timeliness and proportionality of the response to such reports, and the lack of a single channel for reporting corruption.
Most government agencies have not established all the legislatively prescribed reporting channels, have not segregated internal channels and regular reporting channels, have not developed procedures for receiving and reviewing corruption reports, and provide little guidance to potential whistleblowers. At the same time, the quality of reports is low, as they often lack specific factual data.
The Law of Ukraine On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine On Prevention of Corruption Pertaining to the Regulation of Certain Issues of Whistleblower Protection dated June 1, 2021, No. 1502-IX, provides for the functioning of the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal, which should make the process of reporting corruption simple and convenient, and ensure the confidentiality and anonymity of whistleblowers. This Law unifies the procedure for reviewing corruption reports.
At the same time, the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal has not yet been put into permanent (commercial) operation, which should be preceded by a communications campaign and a number of awareness-raising activities that will raise public awareness of the ways to report corruption and the mechanisms for their consideration.
The Law of Ukraine On Prevention of Corruption mentions the cases when whistleblowers can report classified information through external reporting channels. However, this does not apply to information containing secrets of state, and the Law states that the procedure for reporting such information is prescribed by legislation. Meanwhile, there is still no procedure and channels for reporting such information, which means that a whistleblower who works, for example, at the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff of the Armed Forces or the Security Service of Ukraine, can be held liable for disclosing secrets of state, and an investigator of a pretrial investigation authority can be held liable for disclosing secrets of an investigation.