NAPC urges the Verkhovna Rada to preserve lifestyle monitoring tool. Hereʼs why itʼs important

The Verkhovna Rada is proposing amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Prevention of Corruption" that could destroy the tool for monitoring the lifestyle of officials. Therefore, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) calls for the preservation of this tool.

This was reported by the press service of NAPC.

This is a proposal for amendments to Article 51-4 "Monitoring the Lifestyle of Declaring Subjects" of the Law of Ukraine "On Prevention of Corruption". They are stipulated in draft law No. 12374-d "On Strengthening the Institutional Capacity of the NAPC".

NAPC believes that the proposed changes will complicate the verification of questionable assets and will also create corruption risks.

Among the proposed changes that will be considered by the MPs:

• Limiting lifestyle monitoring to the period when a person holds a public office. This will not allow assessing the legality of the wealth that the person acquired earlier. Therefore, the official will be able to explain his wealth as supposedly “legal income” received before the civil service. And this creates corruption risks, in addition, the official can avoid responsibility after dismissal.
• Checking only the declarant himself and his family. If only the official and his family are checked, then the property will be recorded in the names of other people — friends or acquaintances. So, the regulators will not find it. Instead, lifestyle monitoring helps to reveal such schemes.
• Limiting 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 — over a year. If the period is limited to three months, it will make it impossible to effectively fight corruption.

NAPC believes that such changes will limit their powers and lifestyle monitoring functionality, which will negatively affect the work of the Agency.

MP Anastasia Radina reported that the Rada Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy rejected an amendment that would have made changes to the NAPCʼs lifestyle monitoring tool. Radina urged other MPs not to support other rejected amendments regarding changes to the electronic declaration system or the NAPCʼs powers.

"I urge colleagues not to support other rejected amendments regarding changes to the electronic declaration system or the powers of the NAPC if they are submitted "for consideration" in the session hall. These norms contradict Ukraineʼs European integration obligations," she said.

Parliament will consider this bill in second reading this week.

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