The Verkhovna Rada offers changes to the law of Ukraine “on the prevention of corruption” which could destroy the monitoring of the lifestyle of civil servants. Consequently, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) calls for the preservation of this tool.
This was reported by NAPC’s press service.
This is a proposal for modifications to article 51 to 4 “monitoring the lifestyle of declaration subjects” of the law of Ukraine “on the prevention of corruption”. They are stipulated in the bill No. 12374-D “On strengthening the institutional capacity of the NAPC”.
The NAPC considers that the proposed changes will complicate the verification of dubious assets and also create risks of corruption.
Among the proposed changes that will be taken into account by the deputies:
- Limit surveillance of the lifestyle to the period when a person occupies a public service. This will not evaluate the legality of the wealth that the person acquired earlier. Consequently, the official will be able to explain his wealth as supposed to be “a legal income” that the public service. And this creates risks of corruption, in addition, the civil servant can avoid responsibility after dismissal.
- Check only the declarant himself and his family. If only the official and his family are verified, the property will be recorded on behalf of other people – friends or acquaintances. Thus, regulators will not find it. Instead, surveillance of the lifestyle helps to reveal such diagrams.
- Limit the duration of monitoring to three months. It takes a lot of time to qualitatively check the lifestyle – because they analyze large amounts of information, requests to other countries and financial documents. Even in simple cases, this can take up to six months and in complex cases – more than a year. If the period is limited to three months, it will make it impossible to effectively fight against corruption.
The NAPC believes that such changes will limit their powers and their lifestyle monitoring, which will negatively affect the work of the agency.
MP Anastasia Radina reported that the rada commtite on anti-corruption policy rejected an amendment This would have made changes to the NAPC lifestyle monitoring tool. Radina urged the other deputies not to take charge of other changes rejected concerning the changes in the electronic declaration system or the powers of the NAPC.
“I urge colleagues not to support other changes rejected concerning the changes in the electronic declaration system or the powers of the NAPC if they are subject” for examination “in the session room. These standards contradict the European integration obligations of Ukraine,” she said.
Parliament will examine this bill at second reading this week.
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