The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NAPC) reported that 99% of audited asset declarations filed by Ukrainian officials in 2017-2019 contained false information.
The NAPC is notoriously slow in auditing officials declarations. Out of the millions of declarations filed in 2017-2019, the agency only audited a relatively small sample, 2,123 declarations. Out of them, 2,106 declarations had incorrect data, or 99%, according to a report published by the analytics service Opendatabot.
The e-declaration law was one of the pillars of Ukraine’s anti-corruption, post-revolution reforms, obligating officials to declare assets that belong to them and their family members. Since 2015, all public officials in Ukraine have had to file very detailed declarations of assets and income.
Around 800,000-900,000 officials file declarations every year by April 1. The agency usually checks declarations of top Ukrainian officials with the highest corruption risks, including the president, prime minister, ministers, lawmakers and judges.
The agency discovered 1,469 false declarations in 2019, 469 false declarations in 2018 and 141 declarations in 2017.
In 2021, more than 800,000 officials submitted e-declarations, with some revealing astonishing wealth.
Officials who don’t declare assets before the deadline have to pay a fine. In 2019, 120 officials were charged with this offense, and 185 were charged in 2018.
Last October, Ukraine’s Constitutional Court tried to eliminate the electronic declaration system and canceled penalties for officials who lie in their asset declarations. The court ruled that public access to officials’ declarations and the NAPC’s authority to monitor and check officials’ declarations and lifestyle were among clauses of the corruption prevention law that violated the сonstitution.
In response, President Volodymyr Zelensky convened an emergency meeting of the National Defense and Security Council on Oct. 29, which effectively ordered the government to instruct the NAPC to reopen the declarations’ registry despite the court decision.
Apart from resuming the registry of e-declarations, the National Defense and Security Council ordered the drafting of a law that would “restore the integrity of the constitutional judiciary in Ukraine.”
On June 29, Ukraine’s parliament passed a bill reinstating prison terms for lying on asset declarations. Those who break the law may face up to two years of imprisonment, fines or public work.
