The public disclosure of income and assets is not easy, especially when its value is greater than those of ordinary citizens. Therefore, public officials and MPs are often reluctant to do so. The persistent concern about corruption at Dnipro City Administration pushed social activists to intervene and to try to rectify this situation through initiatives designated to fight corruption. Artem Romanyukov, a director and one of the founders of the NGO Public Control Platform, was among these activists fighting corruption in Dnipro oblast.

 

"It was in 2013, during the Revolution of Dignity, when I felt the call for social activism. So, I decided to radically change my occupation – I gradually left my business and in 2014 I co-founded the public initiative called Public Control, which later became an official organization called Public Control Platform," said Artem.

 

This organization is active in the fight against corruption in Dnipro oblast. Despite its short period of existence, it has already succeeded in dozens of cases, including the adoption of Dnipro City Council's decision to providing public access to a huge number of previously unavailable documents, the exposure and suspension of a number of corrupt schemes of local senior officials, and the introduction of an electronic public procurement in the city.

 

Artem with other activists initiated the monitoring of income and assets declarations of public officials of Dnipro City Council. The team scrutinized over 100 declarations and analyzed lifestyle of the most suspicious officials. It turned out that some of the officials had expensive cars and apartments, living far beyond their means.

 

Activists' far-reaching efforts to make this information public and to punish those, who abuse their power for personal gain, resonated widely with local citizens. As a result, erring officials were dismissed from their jobs and were no longer allowed to occupy executive positions.

 

The Public Control Platform does not plan to stop here. "Right now we are preparing materials for a series of lectures in which we plan to share our successful experiences with other active citizens and to inspire them to control and interact with the local authorities," said Artem.