UNIC's open statement on the restoration of e-declarations and public access to declarations of public officials

With other civil society organizations and journalists, UNIC calls on the authorities to fully restore e-declarations and public access to the declarations of public officials.

 

Without manipulations and loopholes. Without concealing from the public the data that has allowed us to identify corruption links for years.

We welcome the adoption of the draft law on the restoration of electronic declaration (No. 9534) in the first reading.

However, we should note that the draft law currently contains risks that will not make the declaration process effective and transparent. This means it will not allow us to identify those using budget funds and positions for personal enrichment during the war. Our victory today and Ukraine's credibility in the world depend on the latter.

 

The public demand for openness of the authorities' declarations remains exceptionally high. 97.1% of Ukrainians support open declarations of "war income of officials."

 

We believe that MPs should make the following changes to the draft law before the second reading to meet the public demand and maintain the trust of international partners:

• Ensure that officials' declarations are made public to the same extent as before the invasion, including information on third parties with whom officials are associated. Currently, the project proposes withholding all names of third parties in the declarations from public access. This includes relatives of declarants who often own assets, third parties from whom declarants buy property, who can register it, and people who lend money to the declarant or lease property. The publicity of this data helps the public and journalists establish corruption links in the government.
• Remove non-transparent thresholds for the market value of using the property from the draft law. For example, the draft law stipulates that one of the conditions for declaring property used by an official is the "market value of such use," which must exceed 50 subsistence minimums (UAH 134,000) for the entire period of use. Officials can easily manipulate this rule. For example, they can enter lease agreements with lower service costs. Or hide behind a fictitious valuation. It will be even easier to avoid declaring assets registered in the names of relatives or friends because in this case, if an official purchased a Lexus and registered it in the name of a relative, they can simply enter into a "correct" agreement with themselves in order not to declare the car.

 

Given the above, we call on the members of the Parliament of Ukraine:

 

• To correct the shortcomings as mentioned above of the draft law on restoration of declaration before voting in the second reading;
• Not to delay the consideration of the draft law and to return mandatory electronic declaration as soon as possible.

Among the signatories: Anti-Corruption Action Centre, Automaidan, Civil Council at the NACP, Association of Open Data, Institute of Legislative Ideas, CHESNO Movement, DEJURE Foundation, Center for Public Monitoring and Research, Centre for Economic Strategy, Anti-Corruption Headquarters, Transparency International Ukraine, StateWatch, YouControl, Kryvyi Rih Investigations Centre, Advocates Advisory Group, Centre of Policy and Legal Reform.