Progress in establishing the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption and developing e-asset declaration register

Details

12.02.2016

Kyiv, 5 February 2016 – The National Agency for Prevention of Corruption is halfway to be fully staffed with its members through re-announcing call for 2 remaining positions.

The volatile and ambiguous process around the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) establishment continues. During the previous wave of competition, three out of five NAPC members were selected and immediately appointed by the government on 11 December 2015. The appointment was questioned by a few NAPC selection panel members appealing to the court about the breach of procedures. While the first hearing in this case is scheduled for the late March 2016, the selection panel has proceeded with running the competition for two more positions based on the 25 December decision of the Cabinet of Ministers.

One hundred and nine candidates applied for these two positions. Majority of them were pearled off during the stages of documents check and experience verification. Only 12 have made to the interview stage, prior to which they need to pass so-called “special background check” (including education, military duty, taxpayer checks, etc.) and write an essay explaining their approach to the work in the Agency. The next selection panel meeting to interview candidates is to be held at the end of February.

Meanwhile, one out of three newly elected NAPC members, MP Chumak, officially dismissed his appointment, arguing that NAPC has not been registered officially as a legal entity and that the recent legislative amendment deprived the Agency some of its core functions.

Legislative changes, which Mr. Chumak referred to in his statement, postpone introduction of the e-asset declaration system until 2017. Recently, two draft laws to fix this provision have been registered in the Parliament, but none of them has been voted on to be included into the parliamentary agenda. Thus, acting legislation clearly contradicts Ukraine’s commitment to both the EU and IMF to introduce a new declarations system in 2016. President Poroshenko and representatives of the Cabinet of Ministers publically promised to fix this mistake.

Significantly, under the UNDP support, the first stage of the e-asset declaration software development (submission, storage, and disclosure of assets declarations) has been completed. By the end of February, the system functionality will be tested internally and externally. The system will provide for filing an electronic declaration by every public servant, automatic public access to this declaration after its upload to the register, and a special means of electronic verification of the data in the declaration.

After all five NAPC members are selected, the system will be presented and passed to the NAPC. This means that legal provisions need to be amended to launch new declaration system already in 2016.