The Parliament has passed the law on protection of whistleblowers with 252 votes in favor. The law will come into effect on January 1, 2020.
From that moment on, a whistleblower will have the right to a 10% reward of the subject of the crime or damages inflicted to the state. A whistleblower will have the right to all kinds of legal aid or to a lawyer.
Besides, it will be prohibited to discriminate against a whistleblower or their family members. A whistleblower also cannot be sued for damages incurred as a result of the whistleblower report. Of course, that is unless the report is untruthful.
Transparency International Ukraine has repeatedly emphasized the need for this law to be passed.
“The passage of this law is an important first step, without which the whistleblower institute will not function in Ukraine properly. However, there is a lot of work to be done. We still need to push for a broader definition of a ‘whistleblower’ to include people who report violations that are not connected with corruption. We also need to introduce our own account mechanism to monitor the case investigation,” said Oleksandr Kalitenko, legal advisor of Transparency International Ukraine.
To recap, Holos Ukrayiny promulgated two important anti-corruption acts signed by President Zelensky. This refers to the law on amendments the Criminal Procedure Code and a law restarting the National Anti-Corruption Agency.
For reference:
Transparency International Ukraine (TI Ukraine) is an accredited chapter of the global movement Transparency International, taking a comprehensive approach to the development and implementation of reforms to reduce corruption.
TI Ukraine has administered and provided the government such electronic systems as ProZorro, ProZorro.Sale, eHealth, and E-Data. Our other ongoing projects include the Transparent Cities Ranking and development of the DOZORRO community for control over public procurement.
For media inquiries: Olesia Koval, [email protected], +38 093-808-82-78.
