Bill to restore e-declaration system introduced in Parliament
A bill that proposes restoring Ukraine’s e-declaration system for government officials has been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, on July 26.
The e-declaration system, originally instituted in 2016, was meant to serve as a key anti-corruption measure, and required government officials to report the entirety of their assets and income to a publicly-checkable database. E-declaration requirements were suspended with the outbreak of full-scale war, and the e-declaration database was classified and restricted from public perusal.
Kyiv committed to restoring e-declaration by Aug. 1, 2023, as part of a previously signed IMF memorandum.
This new bill aims to require declarations not only for the current year, but also for previous years. Additionally, the bill stipulates that declarations will be made publicly available in the Unified State Register of Declarations until the termination or cancellation of martial law. However, certain personal information will be excluded, such as:
- Taxpayer Identification Number or Ukrainian citizen’s passport number;
- Place of residence;
- Date of birth;
- Location of properties listed in the declaration;
- Account number in banking or other financial institutions;
- Data on the populated areas where the mentioned properties are located or the actual place of residence/registered place of residence;
- Personal information of all other individuals mentioned in the declaration (excluding the declarant).
These individuals will have access to information about themselves and their family members through reference systems, registries, and databases.
A number of military personnel would also be required to comply with the e-declaration regime, according to the bill. This includes those who:
- Serve in territories where active hostilities are conducted;
- Reside in temporarily occupied territories;
- Directly participate in combat operations;
- Are employees of agencies engaged in intelligence and/or counterintelligence activities and are directly involved in conducting intelligence measures;
- Are sent to other countries to participate in international peacekeeping and security operations.
Soldiers are required to submit their declarations within 90 days from the date of:
- Determination of the end of combat actions;
- Termination of temporary occupation for the temporarily occupied territories they were stationed in;
- Return to the point of permanent deployment or place of permanent work (except rotation);
- Termination or cancellation of martial law.
The bill would also require that those subject to e-declarations include owned objects valued at a market rate of over 50 living wages (for 2022, this is 124,050 hryvnias ($3,360)), which have been owned or in use over a period of at least 183 calendar days during the reporting period and/or two months preceding the end of the reporting period.
The bill also reinstates special checks, including those waived for certain appointments.
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