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UNDP focuses on lifestyle monitoring as effective tool against corruption in Ukraine

In order to foster the ongoing anti-corruption reform in the country, UNDP in Ukraine has produced a study on the existing international practices of officials' lifestyle monitoring and suggested recommendations for Ukraine.


0cee3c463e8ae3ba9d98c6edd0c5116cThe study, titled Lifestyle Monitoring: Review and Potential for Application in Ukraine, offers an overview of world practices applied to lifestyle monitoring – ranging from covert operations by state bodies and private citizens or analysis of publically available data, to desk review of information from official registries and banking record – and analyses possible loopholes and refers to the relevant case law of the European Court of Human Rights.

As study suggests, the hybrid lifestyle monitoring model that was successfully implemented in the Philippines could also work for Ukraine: the analysis of discrepancies between the actual lifestyle and the claimed income covers such areas as behaviours, asset value, relative checks, and conflict of interests.

Importantly, the study emphasizes the crucial role civil society can play in the monitoring process and explains how civic effort could effectively complement that of Ukraine's National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP).

Monitor en final-page-001The study highlights the significance of strengthening channels for taking in information from citizens and journalists, enhancing access to international data exchange agreements, and improving access to banking data.

Prepared upon request from the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the study is designed to support the implementation of the Law of Ukraine on Prevention of Corruption of 14 October 2014, which foresees the introduction of innovative instruments to counter corruption in the country, notably by authorizing the NACP to conduct lifestyle monitoring activities and benchmark actual civil servant's lifestyles against their declared earnings.

Amid extensive anti-corruption efforts in the country, the study is envisaged to serve as a roadmap to give all stakeholders directions, inspired by examples worldwide, on how to proceed with implementing lifestyle monitoring policies in the Ukrainian context while complying with the European Convention on Human Rights and practice of the European Court, especially with regards to the right to privacy.
 
The study was launched in Kyiv on 27 October 2016 to some 50 experts representing Ukrainian government agencies, civil society, and the international community.