A strong whistleblower mechanism will exist in all public institutions - a whistleblower is any citizen, a person working in a public institution, who exposes a corruption fact in a specific public institution, - the head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Razhden Kuprashvili, told journalists.

According to him, strengthening the whistleblower protection mechanism is a priority.

As Kuprashvili explains, a person can provide information about a corruption fact to the Anti-Corruption Bureau, "but the burden of proof does not lie on the whistleblower and it will become the subject of an investigation."

“Today, the Anti-Corruption Bureau is holding a meeting with representatives of the public sector and we will talk about anti-corruption policy, at the same time, about the legislative changes that will come into force in September-November.

What are these changes - you know that there was such a bad practice in the public sector, when a civil servant was employed in several public institutions. At the initiative of the Prime Minister, the mentioned legislation was changed and from September this practice will no longer be possible. Specific officials will no longer be allowed to work in other public institutions and receive doubled salaries. The role of the Anti-Corruption Bureau is very important here and we have made several important recommendations to ensure that this law is implemented more correctly and well. The law also provides for exceptional directions. You know that there are a number of sectors where there is a sectoral deficit. Of course, this does not apply to the mentioned persons. This law does not apply to people who, for example, work in several theaters employed and participating in the performance. Therefore, the mentioned change was very correct and timely.

The second law is when an advisor can no longer be a paid employee. However, here too, in order to exclude any corruption risks, the Anti-Corruption Bureau received an important recommendation, where all such employed persons will be obliged to declare their interest in advance and fill out the relevant declaration. That is, we will know what interest the person appointed as an advisor has in order to exclude corruption risks and know what exactly this person is doing in the institution.

The next change is the whistleblower protection mechanisms. This is a completely new thing, where a strong whistleblower mechanism will exist in all public institutions. This means that in many cases, when a citizen addresses public institutions, there are no timely responses regarding certain decisions, of course, this further negatively affects the citizen's trust in the public sector and of course, this is a very problematic issue and a threat to our democracy. Accordingly, strengthening the whistleblower institution will be a reform that will bring transparency. A whistleblower is any citizen, a whistleblower is a person working in a public institution who exposes a corrupt fact in specific public institutions. Here, the role of the Anti-Corruption Bureau in this review process increases significantly,” Kuprashvili said.