Draft bill #9534 of July 26, 2023 

Decision-maker: the Parliament 

Status: vetoed by the President of Ukraine 

Who is affected: public officials, civil servants, and local government officials (about 700,000 people), and the National Agency for Preventing Corruption 

Summary of the bill: 

  • public officials, civil servants, and local government officials, including officials from military medical commissions and medical social expert boards, and persons participating in public defense procurements will once again be obliged to submit asset declarations 
  • declarations for 2022 and 2023 will not be publicly available for one year if the person submitting the declaration decides not to disclose it 
  • the requirement to submit asset declarations does not apply to service members, prisoners of war, and citizens in the temporarily occupied territories until the end of martial law or the de-occupation of the territory if it happens before the end of martial law and the de-occupation of all Ukrainian territories 
  • it will be allowed not to include assets that were in possession of a person or their family members for less than half a year (including up to two months prior to the reporting year) 
  • it will be allowed not to include property if its use was paid for by the state or if it is recognized as destroyed in the course of military hostilities, terrorist acts, or diversions caused by the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine 
  • full checks of asset declarations will be reinstated. These checks will be based on risk assessment 
  • the limit on acceptable gifts will be increased: from ₴2,684 to ₴5,368 in 2023, throughout the year in 2023 — from ₴5,368 to ₴10,736). 

What is right: 

  • the bill re-discloses asset declarations and even introduces the requirement to submit asset declarations for groups most suspected of corruption by society and law enforcement agencies while martial law is declared (those related to military medical commissions and mobilization) 
  • security risks for certain groups of people are taken into account: the requirement to submit asset declarations for them will be postponed until the end of the martial law or the time when these risks are reduced 
  • verification of declarations is reinstated. 

What is wrong: 

  • the provision allowing to hide asset declarations for individuals who are not service members and are not in the occupied territories of Ukraine deprives civil society of the opportunity to carry out independent monitoring of anti-corruption policies 
  • the new rules allowing not to disclose assets in temporary possession will give plenty of opportunities for officials to hide property. 

Alternative solution: 

  • to introduce the requirement to disclose asset declaration this year (with exceptions defined by this bill taking into account the security risks) 
  • to include the requirement to disclose cases of temporary use or possession of assets 

Background information: the day after the draft bill was adopted in the second reading, an e-petition by Oleksandr Yabchanka, a soldier from the Da Vinci Wolves battalion, was registered on the website of the President of Ukraine. The petition demanded to veto this bill and return it to the Verkhovna Rada with the recommendation to disclose asset declarations. The petition received 83,000 (out of 25,000 required) signatures in less than two days, which is a record among all e-petitions ever submitted in Ukraine.