Mandatory public financial reports of parties will be returned to Ukraine

Author:
Anhelina Sheremet
Date:

The Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian Parliament) adopted in the first reading draft law No. 9419-1 on the restoration of financial reporting and state control over the financing of political parties.

291 MPs voted for it.

Party reporting was first suspended in 2020 due to the coronavirus, and later due to martial law — that is, the last time parties reported was for the third quarter of 2020. After the law enters into force, political parties must submit reports for all periods for which they did not report, starting in 2020. 120 days are allotted for this. 90 days to submit reports on state funding.

The draft law also takes into account the features of party reporting related to the war. Thus, since the beginning of the Russian invasion, 6 regions of Ukraine were under occupation, some of them are still under temporary occupation. In some places, party documents in these territories were either lost or deliberately destroyed by the heads of organizations. However, the inability to provide complete information about property, income, and expenses must be documented.

  • In May 2023, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) established a violation of the law during the financing of the "Servant of the People" party. People who made large contributions to the partyʼs account were found there, but it is not known where they got the funds from.
  • At the end of March 2020, the Verkhovna Rada allowed parties not to submit financial reports until the completion of "measures to prevent the emergence and spread of the coronavirus disease." At the beginning of 2021, the specialized committee of the Council approved draft law No. 4611, which would help restore mandatory reporting, but it was never put to a vote.