The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has reintroduced reward and incentives scheme for informants, whistleblowers and citizens who would pass on information relating to corrupt practices to the ACC, the Commission said in a statement on Thursday.
A whistleblower is a legal term for an employee who reports his or her employer’s violation of the law to authorities. An informant is a more generic term which could also include individuals who report a wrongdoer to settle a personal score.
The commission said in the press release that, the reward scheme is been re-introduced in a bid to sustain, consolidate and improve on the remarkable gains the country had made thus far in the fight against corruption.
In that vein, any member of the public who provides cogent and useful information to the Commission that leads to the successful prosecution and conviction of, and/or recovery of funds or property from a corrupt person (including public officers) will be rewarded 10 percent of the total amount or value of the 10 percent withheld by the Commission for its operations as per law.
“For instance, where the information provided by an informant or whistleblower leads to the recovery of One Billion Leones (Le 1,000,000,000), the ACC will, as stipulated in Section 139 of the Anti-Corruption Act, 2008 as amended in 2019, withhold One Hundred Million Leones (Le 100,000,000) of the said sum, which constitutes 10 percent of the proceeds,” the commission said in the press release.
In that regard, the Commission would pay the sum of Le 10,000,000 in full to the informant or whistleblower, which would amount to 10 percent of the proceeds withheld as in the aforesaid example.
The commission assured all informants of their full protection as provided for in Sections 81 and 82 of the Anti-Corruption Act 2008 as amended in 2019, and the Witness and Whistleblower Protection Policy of the Commission.
By George M.O. Williams