When asked to approach Ukrainian investigators with a $5 million bribe on behalf of a former senior official in 2020, businessman Yevhen Shevchenko was reportedly entitled to a cut as an intermediary.
This month, he finally received his money – but from the Ukrainian government, in exchange for reporting the bribe to anti-corruption police and mounting an undercover operation.
Shevchenko is one of Ukraine’s first two whistleblowers to receive a state payment for their role in helping bring a corrupt official to justice, part of a crackdown on corruption that gained greater importance during the war with Russia.
Also this month, a Defense Ministry official was paid the equivalent of about $40,500 for reporting a bribe offered in 2021 in exchange for a favorable audit of a ministry contractor.
Authorities hope the practice of offering rewards, introduced in 2019 but implemented only recently, will bolster an effort that is essential to Ukraine’s ambition to join the European Union.
Authorities intensified their campaign against corruption, launching investigations against ministers and former presidential advisors.
Ukraine rose in Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking 104th out of 180 countries. Public tolerance for corruption has also plummeted as Russia’s invasion depletes precious resources.
But corruption remains widespread, with traditionally weak state institutions proving easily exploited and stubbornly resistant to reform. High-level corruption is particularly corrosive, watchdogs believe.
The rewards are designed to address this threat, only applying to cases where the amount in question – whether the sum of the bribe or the potential damage to the state – exceeds 5,000 times the minimum monthly subsistence level, currently around US $73.
The practice sends a powerful signal to potential whistleblowers and state institutions, according to Anastasia Renkas of the National Corruption Prevention Agency, a state watchdog.
“If people know their rights, then all organizations will start to consider the fact that people can start to make use of those rights,” she said.
Whistleblowers are entitled to 10% of the value in their cases once convictions are handed down, with rewards capped at $500,000.
In a separate effort, lawmakers on Tuesday updated regulations on plea deals in corruption cases, which experts say could also help capture high-profile suspects.
“Motivational tool”
Shevchenko and the defense official’s cases were concluded last year, but payments were only earmarked for the first time in the 2024 budget.
Shevchenko, who had previously worked with Ukraine’s anti-corruption police as an informant, was paid the equivalent of around $320,000.
He believes that rewards are a strong “motivational tool” that can compel civic-minded, albeit more needy, Ukrainians close to major corruption cases – such as drivers or maids – to report irregularities.
“There are a very large number of people who can help uncover crimes but don’t because they are afraid or for other reasons,” he said.
In addition to codifying rewards more firmly into law, the NACP, the state watchdog agency, launched an online portal allowing public sector employees to anonymously report suspected workplace corruption.
More than 4,000 reports have been submitted since last year, although so far only a small fraction – 47 – have involved concrete criminal or administrative violations.
Renkas acknowledged that many Ukrainians remain hesitant to report corruption because of the personal risks, so his agency is also working to increase legal protections for whistleblowers.
The overall goal, she says, is to challenge how Ukrainians traditionally think about corruption. “The criminal is not the whistleblower, but rather the one who commits the crime and dictates these types of rules.”
This content was originally published in Ukraine intensifies anti-corruption campaign and rewards whistleblowers on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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