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One Year of Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Whistleblower Portal
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As part of Ukraine's State Anti-Corruption Program for 2023–2025, the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal was developed at the request of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP). This portal allows people to confidentially report corruption within government organizations and obtain whistleblower status, ensuring their protection. The technical implementation was carried out by the Kitsoft team.
Here are the results of the first year of the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal operation.
Transparency in government agency activities is crucial for Ukraine’s economic stability and European integration. Fighting corruption is one of the key challenges on this path.
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.
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.
How to report corruption safely
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.
How the portal works:
1. Reporting corruption on the portal is very easy. 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. The number can only be found by the status of the message and a memo to the whistleblower. Names, contact details, or other information cannot be found.
3. The message immediately appears in the authorized person’s electronic cabinet.
The official logs into 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 portal’s role in anti-corruption activities
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 the state to confirm a whistleblower’s status 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 Ukraine’s history, corruption whistleblowers received rewards.
This will contribute to further development and create a sustainable whistleblowing culture in Ukrainian 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 (€1.32 million) a year for each state-owned enterprise.
With the new law entering into force, all state organizations are obliged to create internal channels where their employees can report crimes. However, each organization aims to create 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 it and use its tools. According to preliminary estimates, the budget savings for one organization from operating such a system are about 60 million UAH per year or more.
- Collects analytics to record and protect whistleblowers.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) is responsible for keeping statistics and protecting whistleblowers in Ukraine. To assist them in this, an analytics module was developed. 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.
Results of the first year of the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal operation
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 5,000 reports, and more than 7,000 organizations have joined.
The Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal was developed by technical partner Kitsoft at the request of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) with the support of USAID’s SACCI.
This article was prepared by the GovTech Alliance of Ukraine (GTA UA)
