The authors of the draft law propose to supplement the anti-corruption law with Article91, which establishes the rights of persons who have reported corruption offenses, as well as measures to protect them from actions of a repressive nature.
According to the draft law, information about such a person, as well as information contained in the notification, shall be treated as confidential information, and its unlawful disclosure shall entail liability in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation. The procedure for reporting corruption violations, the list of information contained in notifications, the organization of verification of this information and the procedure for registration of notifications shall be determined by the Government of the Russian Federation.
Measures to protect persons who have reported facts of corruption provide that, within two years from the date of notification, such a person may be dismissed, transferred to another position at the initiative of the representative of the employer or brought to disciplinary responsibility only after the relevant issue has been considered at a meeting of the commission on compliance with requirements for official conduct and settlement of conflicts of interest or other collegial body authorized to consider such issues in the organization.
According to part 7 of the proposed draft article91, a prosecutor mayparticipate in such meetings, but according to part 9 of the article, the invitation of a prosecutor to such meetings is mandatory.
At the same time, the draft law does not contain provisions establishing requirements for the composition of another collegial body authorized to consider these issues. While the number of members of the commission on compliance with requirements to official conduct and settlement of conflicts of interest who do not hold positions in a given body (organization) must be at least one quarter of the total number of members of the commission, the current legislation does not establish such restrictions for the composition of another collegial body
According to the draft law, corruption whistleblowers are also entitled to free legal aid, and the submission of knowingly false information entails prosecution of the person in accordance with the norms of current legislation. However, the issue of the effectiveness of free legal aid in conjunction with the possible influence, including financial, on lawyers by persons against whom a notification has been filed does not create confidence in the creation of a quality and professional system of protection by the proposed measures.
It should be noted that this draft law is not the first attempt to enshrine at the legislative level mechanisms for the protection of persons who have reported corruption. In 2015, a draft of a separate federal law on the protection of persons who have reported corruption offenses from prosecution and infringement of their rights and legitimate interests, which was more comprehensive in nature, was posted for public discussion. The said draft, in particular, provided for the possibility of remuneration to corruption whistleblowers, and the period of time within which the issue of prosecution of corruption whistleblowers would be discussed.
At present, Russia actually lacks special measures to protect whistleblowers. A separate restriction is established by paragraph 21 of Decree No. 309 of the President of the Russian Federation of 2 April 2013 "On Measures to Implement Certain Provisions of the Federal Law 'On Combating Corruption'", according to which, until the issuance of the relevant regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation, a person who holds a position in a state body or in any of the above-mentioned organizations, who has reported to law enforcement or other state agencies, shall be treated as a person who has notified the law enforcement or other state agencies of the need to establish mechanisms to protect whistleblowers.
The need for the formation of whistleblower protection mechanisms in the Russian Federation is conditioned, among other things, by the international obligations undertaken (e.g., Article 33 of the UN Convention against Corruption, the G20 Action Plan on Combating Corruption for 2017-2018, paragraph 13 of the Work Plan on Cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for 2017-2018).
At the same time, experts of international organizations note that a systematic approach to the development of whistleblower protection legislation is still quite rare. Thus, according to the OECD report, many countries continue to refrain from adopting a comprehensive specialized whistleblower protection law (this also applies to Russia), limiting themselves to making individual, often declarative, additions to the existing legislation. According to OECD experts, such measures are often unable to provide whistleblowers with real protection.