For the first time in Ukraine's history, a whistleblower has received a reward: details from NACP.

The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has paid a reward to a whistleblower for the first Time. This is stated on the official website of the agency.

It is reported that the payment was made in accordance with the decision of the Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court dated November 9, 2023, in case No. 991/2197/22. According to 'Glavkom', NACP transferred the amount of 1 million 680 thousand UAH to the whistleblower Andriy Andriyovych Boyko on October 2, 2024.

NACP reported that the whistleblower who received the reward is an active military serviceman who previously worked as the director of the Ministry of Defense's internal audit department in 2020-2021. In 2021, he approached the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and reported that he was offered an unlawful benefit of 24 million UAH for influencing the execution of a state contract.

This concerned the involvement of specialists for an unscheduled internal audit of contract execution. The audit group was supposed to create a positive report, which would allow the company to receive full payment of more than 400 million UAH and obtain future contracts with the Ministry of Defense.

NABU registered a criminal proceeding on this fact, and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) handled the process and prosecution in court. The High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) sentenced the defendant to 4.5 years of imprisonment but refused the reward payment, explaining that he formally reported the crime he discovered, so he was not entitled to the reward. The whistleblower appealed this decision, and the Appeals Chamber of HACC finally awarded him the payment.

According to the 'On Preventing Corruption' law, a whistleblower can receive 10% of the corruption crime amount or the damages inflicted on the state after a guilty verdict is delivered. However, the reward amount cannot exceed three thousand minimum wages at the time of the crime. The possibility of paying rewards to corruption whistleblowers was introduced in 2019, but due to a lack of payment regulation, the implementation of court decisions was problematic.

Head of NACP Viktor Pavlushyk noted that this payment became possible due to changes in the use of state budget funds for anti-corruption measures. He emphasized that further reward payments to whistleblowers are a priority task for NACP.

Let us remind you that as of January 1, 2020, the law 'On Amending the Law of Ukraine 'On Preventing Corruption' regarding whistleblowers' came into force in Ukraine. It provides for the definition of the legal status of whistleblowers, their rights and protection guarantees, as well as ensuring conditions for disclosure of corruption information.