Ukraine’s National Agency for Preventing Corruption (NAPC) has halted state financing for the political party of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko after discovering legal violations in the financial reporting of the party’s regional and central branches.
On Nov. 6, the NAPC published an analysis of the Batkivshchyna party’s accounting for the first quarter of 2020, where it identified signs of administrative and criminal violations of the law. As a result, the agency ruled to halt the party’s financing in the fourth quarter.
Batkivshchyna is attempting to fight the decision in the Kyiv District Administrative Court, a Ukrainian court known for judges accused of corruption and rulings widely viewed as serving political and business interests. But the court’s press release on the suit, published on Nov. 23, ultimately brought the state funding freeze to the attention of the Chesno civic nonprofit and wider public attention.
Batkivshchyna is requesting that the court find the NAPC’s actions in conducting the analysis “illegal” and declare several of its conclusions “wrongful,” the court said in its press release.
According to Chesno, the NAPC identified several significant violations by Batkivshchyna. The party’s local organization in Ukrainka, a city of 15,000 people located 45 kilometers to the south of Kyiv, did not file a financial report at all. Batkivshchyna also did not provide information on its Hr 45,000 ($1,580) in financial obligations to the Fineit company.
The NAPC also concluded that the Kyiv and Sumy oblast branches of Batkivshchyna forged documents to receive donations of fliers, brochures and signs. The people who signed those documents were outside the country on the signature dates, according to the agency.
Moreover, in 2017-2020, donors to the Kyiv and Kirovohrad oblast party branches gave more money than they could realistically afford based upon their income.
The NAPC also identified problems in contracts for services worth more than Hr 14 million ($493,000) that Batkivshchyna signed with several companies. The contracts listed bank accounts that were opened after the official date of the agreements, meaning that the documents could have been backdated. The money the party spent on the services came from state funds it received to compensate for funds it spent on the parliamentary election campaign in 2019.
Batkivshchyna can regain state financing if it resolves the violations of financial reporting.
The Kyiv District Administrative Court is currently deciding whether to accept Batkivshchyna’s lawsuit.
The NAPC’s decision on Batkivshchyna represents the first time since its inception that the agency has halted state financing for a party based upon an inspection of its financial reporting. The NAPC was launched in 2015, while Ukraine introduced quarterly financial reporting in 2016.
