DISINFO: Ukrainians will be paid for snitching on local corrupt officials and "separatists"
SUMMARY
The team of the President of Ukraine announced their intention to create a special service that will engage in “cooperation with conscious citizens” and process information received on the activities of local corrupt officials and persons who violate the territorial integrity of the country.
RESPONSE
The "press event" RIA FAN refers to in its text, is in fact the Ukraine's parliament’s (Verkhovna Rada) passing of Presidential Bill No. 1010 to amend the law "On Prevention of Corruption" regarding whistle-blowers. In particular, the bill proposes that the said law be amended to define a legal status of corruption whistle-blowers, their rights and safety guarantees, provide conditions for the disclosure of relevant information, regulate the disclosure procedure, exempt whistle-blowers from legal liability for disclosure of information on corruption-related offences and ensure their protection by the government, including their labour rights. According to the bill, a whistle-blower is a person who, being convinced that the information is reliable, has reported facts of corruption or corruption-related offences, and other violations of law on the prevention of corruption to the relevant authorities. An employee with the relevant body may report on possible facts of corruption or corruption-related offences anonymously. The bill also stipulates amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code. That is, the whistle-blower shall be paid a remuneration within 10% of the monetary amount of corrupt funds or damage inflicted on the state, but not more than 3,000 times the minimum wage as of the moment the crime was committed. The head of the IDF Reforms Lab in Ukraine, Lyudmila Yevseyenko, commented on the heading and text of RIA FAN. She mentioned that there will not be a "special service" as stated in the RIA FAN text, in fact it will be NABU's (National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine) responsibility. She also mentioned that there is nothing about "separatists" in the new bill. In her blog Yevseyenko also argues, that this new initiative is not about "snitching". "The accuser is not a "snitch" and not a "reporter", but a conscious citizen who does not wait for someone, but himself engages in the fight against corruption, if he becomes aware of a corruption offence", - she writes.