How to get a million for turning in a corrupt official: terms of the new law
11 December 19:03
The government has decided to strengthen the fight against corruption by financially rewarding those who turn in a corrupt official and has submitted amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine. The reward for the hero who “turned in“ a bribe-taker has been promised for a long time, but only now have they come to create a real mechanism for enforcing a court decision to pay the whistleblower. And we are talking about 10% of thebribe amount. This is not a new idea, but it has never been implemented: either the funds allocated to fight corruption were not enough for rewards, or they could not decide on the amount. But now many people will have an honest way to earn extra money. Komersant studied what the government plans to do.
In fact, the idea of rewarding a whistleblower for a bribe-taker has been around for a long time. Back in 2017, MP Vadym Rabinovych registered a bill that was supposed to encourage citizens to fight corruption and become a part of the fight themselves. A potential informant who would report on the involvement of officials in corruption schemes was supposed to be paid a reward of 10% of the possible amount of damage that the dishonest official had caused or could have caused to the state.
It was planned that the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption would pay Ukrainians money for corrupt officials. Having received a “signal”, it had 30 days to verify the veracity of this information and estimate the amount of real or possible state losses, on which the “bonus“ to the informant would depend. Anonymous denunciations were left without a bonus. At the time, they were going to pay for the informant’s work out of the $54 million allocated to Ukraine for reforms and the fight against corruption that year.
However, the bill was never considered, and in 2019 it was withdrawn altogether. And all because a new team came in and revived the idea and presented it as their own. Ruslan Riaboshapka, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office, proposed to “encourage“ people who expose top corrupt officials. At the time, it was also about 10% of the amount of damages reimbursed to the state or the amount of the bribe exposed. The law “On Corruption Whistleblowers” was adopted in 2019 and came into force in January 2020, but with new introductory provisions.
According to the law, the amount of unlawful remuneration received by another person should not exceed 5000 tax-free minimum incomes, which is almost UAH 10 million. The amount of remuneration that can be received after the bribe-taker has been handed over to law enforcement agencies is determined by the court. It is usually 10% of the bribe. At the same time, it cannot exceed UAH 15.5 million, or 3,000 minimum wages.
But despite loud statements, no one has received a reward for turning in a bribe-taker. Although some of them were literally one step away from a reward. For example, Mustafa Nayem. In November 2023, Andriy Odarchenko, a member of the Servant of the People faction, was caught offering Mustafa Nayem, head of the State Agency for Infrastructure Restoration and Development, a bribe in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin for the equivalent of $50,000 for assistance in allocating funds for the repair of an infrastructure facility under his control. Nayem not only did not take the bribe, but also reported the offer. The case went to court. Odarchenko was sentenced to 8 years with confiscation, and Nayem did not receive the promised 10% of the amount for his efforts.
Incentives from 2027 and for “big fish”
The problem is that there is no actual mechanism for paying a reward to a whistleblower, since the current procedures are primarily designed to collect funds to the budget, not to pay from the budget. That is why the Cabinet of Ministers has proposed amendments to the draft law on payment of remuneration to corruption whistleblowers.
What is planned to be done:
- A special procedure will be created to pay rewards to whistleblowers, unlike the general procedure for the enforcement of court decisions.
- The National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) will become the body responsible for planning and using budget funds allocated for payments to whistleblowers (the main administrator and responsible executor of a separate budget program).
- The right to remuneration will be granted to persons who:
- Reported a corruption crime with a damage or bribe amount of 5000 (approximately UAH 16.3 million by 2025 standards) or more times the subsistence level for able-bodied persons at the time of the crime.
- We actively contributed to solving this crime.
- The CPC will be amended to highlight the payment procedure and ensure its implementation.
- The relevant authorities will be obliged to inform the NACP about the submission of an indictment in a case involving a whistleblower to the court or about a court decision to pay a reward to the whistleblower.
- The amount of remuneration is set by the Law on Prevention of Corruption: 10% of the bribe amount, but not more than 3,000 minimum wages (UAH 27 million today) at the time of the crime.
The exact amount of future costs is unknown, as at the time of submission of the draft law there was no information on court decisions on such payments that had entered into force. Payments under the new mechanism will become possible in 2027. The amount of funding will be planned in subsequent budget periods based on unenforced court decisions.
The reward cannot find the hero
What we have today. Ukraine is de jure obliged to pay rewards to whistleblowers of major corruption crimes, but de facto there is no systematic mechanism for such payments, lawyers emphasize.
“The right to remuneration (10% of the damage caused to the state, but not more than 3000 minimum wages) is enshrined in the Law of Ukraine “On Prevention of Corruption” (Article 52-2). This right arises for a person who has reported a corruption offense with damage of more than 5000 minimum living wages and actively contributed to its disclosure, after the court’s guilty verdict enters into force. Thus, from a legal point of view, the state is obliged to pay for court decisions that have entered into force,” lawyer Ivan Vasilevsky told Kommersant Ukrainsky.
Despite the existence of the right in the law, no separate procedure or budgetary instrument for payment has been created. The current procedure for the enforcement of court decisions (CMU Resolution No. 845) is technically designed to collect money from the budget, not to pay individuals from the budget under this specific article. There is no responsible body that would plan these expenditures in the budget, reserve funds and make payments. The Treasury cannot transfer money without a clear budget allocation and a spending unit.
“Even if a court has decided to pay a whistleblower a reward, the state has no established channel to execute it. This creates a situation where the right exists only on paper. A whistleblower can receive a writ of execution, but will face the impossibility of actually collecting it from the state budget due to the lack of a procedure,” the lawyer noted.
This legal conflict and the need to correct it is the main reason for the development of this government bill. Although, even citizens today do not actively turn in bribe-takers, as law enforcement officers admit. And if such cases do occur, the amounts are insignificant. And the Cabinet of Ministers expects to catch “big fish,” but they swim in completely different waters.
Author: Alla Dunina
