As part of the State Anti-Corruption Program for 2023-2025, Kitsoft has developed a Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal at the request of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP). The portal allows you to confidentially report corruption in a government organization and receive whistleblower status, which guarantees protection.

Image: Home page of the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal.

According to the Corruption Perceptions Index calculated by Transparency International, Ukraine received 35 points out of 100 in 2024. This is 105th place out of 180 countries on the list. Serbia also received 35 points in this year's study. The Dominican Republic is one point ahead of us, while Algeria, Brazil, Malawi, Nepal, Niger, Thailand, and Turkey scored one point less.

While the number of citizens willing to fight corruption is growing (49% in 2024, compared to 26% in 2021), they are often held back by concerns about their safety and distrust of existing corruption reporting mechanisms. 

However, the UN study noted that whistleblowers, among other things, provide an opportunity to fight corruption in every country. This is a category of people who have a conscious civic position and report corruption in the organizations they work for. 

As a rule, corruption offenses are related to management, so a whistleblower can be fired, accused of disclosing a “commercial” secret, or even prosecuted. To prevent this, in 2020, Ukraine adopted a new Law on Corruption Prevention. Now, whistleblowers and their close associates are protected by the state. They cannot be fired or forced to resign, or refused employment, and, if necessary, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) will provide legal support. 

However, the legal confirmation of whistleblower status and rights remained a major problem. The process of reporting corruption was bureaucratic and paper-based. This created new risks and left the whistleblower unprotected once again. 

Creating a tool to enable whistleblowers to safely report corruption became one of the NACP's key priorities. 

The Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal provides a confidential, automated process for reporting corruption and granting whistleblower status.  

Anyone can report a corruption offense on the portal anonymously or with personal information. In both cases, the right to confidentiality is guaranteed, but to obtain whistleblower status and claim a reward, a person must provide his or her details. Also, the statement must relate to a specific person and contain verifiable facts about the offense. In the absence of at least one of these conditions, a person receives the status of an applicant rather than a whistleblower.

The information provided will immediately reach the heads of organizations or responsible departments, as well as the authorized anti-corruption bodies. This minimizes the human factor and prevents interference with the system and information leakage.

Image: Message movement on the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal. 

1. It is very easy to report corruption on the portal. The entire process is organized into five simple steps, each with simple tips. You can attach photos, videos, or text to your message.

2. After sending a message, the user immediately receives a unique 14-digit number — this is the message identifier. Data in the system is stored depersonalized. Only the status of the message and a memo to the whistleblower can be found by the number. Names, contact details or other information cannot be found. 

3. The message immediately appears in the authorized person's electronic cabinet. 

The official logs in to his or her electronic account using a QES (qualified electronic signature). Even in the event of an information leak, it is possible to check who went where, what they viewed, and react accordingly. 

4. If the report is verified, the applicant acquires the status of a whistleblower. 

If the preliminary review reveals signs of a corruption or corruption-related offense, the materials are transferred to a specially authorized entity in the field of combating corruption or the State Bureau of Investigation.

The applicant is provided with detailed information on the results of the preliminary review and disciplinary proceedings within three days from the date of completion.

5. To check the progress of the application, the applicant must enter its identifier on the portal. 

The Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal helps in the comprehensive fight against corruption, in particular: 

• Solves the problem of confirming the status of a whistleblower.

A unique identifier allows you to confirm the status of a whistleblower and check the progress of the application. The whistleblower can use it to go to court, and the state can protect him or her. If a whistleblower has been unlawfully dismissed, the court can reinstate him or her. 

Also, since 2020, Ukraine has had a reward program for whistleblowers. They can receive 10% of the amount of the offense. 

In October 2024, the Ukrainian whistleblowing institution received a powerful impetus for further development. For the first time in the history of Ukraine, corruption whistleblowers received rewards. 

This will contribute to further development and create a sustainable culture of whistleblowing in our society.  

• Provides comprehensive information for whistleblowers. 

Employees of state organizations and ministries may know about the concept of a whistleblower, but they do not always know how to report corruption. In this case, they search on Google, where there is a lot of different information and offers to help for a fee. A single whistleblower reporting portal is available to everyone. It contains clear and up-to-date information on how, where, and what to report, the procedure for reviewing an application, and the rights of a whistleblower — everyone can easily figure it out on their own.

• Reduces the number of inappropriate reports.

90% of the reports that come to the relevant authorities through other channels are not related to corruption, such as “I know my boss is a thief.” It works like a spam system that puts a huge strain on the authorities. Instead of investigating, detectives have to respond to these messages.

• It saves UAH 60 million a year for each state-owned enterprise.

With the entry into force of the new law, all state organizations are obliged to create internal channels where their employees can report crimes. However, each of them is aimed at creating completely different products and does not have a separate resource to create an information technology base and support.

The Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal has open APIs, so any government organization can connect to the portal and use its tools. According to preliminary estimates, the savings for the budget of one organization for the operation of such a system is about 60 million UAH per year or more.

• Collects analytics to record and protect whistleblowers.

The NABU is responsible for keeping statistics and protecting whistleblowers in Ukraine. If there are about ten thousand reports a year in the country, then all of them need to be processed: to provide answers, protection from the NACP to whistleblowers, to check whether there is any reaction from the authorities, etc. But collecting statistics on where and how many whistleblowers there are is another problem. To do this, the NABU sends requests to government organizations, but they usually try to hide the information. 

To solve this problem, we have developed an analytics module. The NACP employee's office will display data on all organizations connected to the portal. The register of reports will collect statistics: the number of reports submitted, the company's local ID number, whistleblower status, etc. The data can be filtered and analyzed — for this purpose, we have developed a convenient search filter by type of offense, reporting channel, status of consideration, whistleblower status, reported entities, etc. 

Image: Analytics module on the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal.

For its operation, the portal has proven to be the most effective mechanism for ensuring the confidentiality and anonymity of whistleblowers and their timely protection compared to other reporting channels. 

As of October 2024, 72 people have been granted the status of corruption whistleblower. In total, the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal has received more than 5 thousand reports and more than 7.5 thousand organizations have joined. 

For reference 

The Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal was developed at the request of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) with the support of USAID's SACCI.

*Data from the study “National Corruption Perceptions and Experience Poll 2024”.