Parliament approves criminal responsibility for inaccurate declarations, multiple loopholes have been created

UKRAINE - In Brief 05 Dec 2020 by Dmytro Boyarchuk

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Yesterday, on Dec 4th Verkhovna Rada voted in the law which returns criminal responsibility for inaccurate declarations. The relevant provision of the Criminal Code had been previously canceled by the Constitutional court. However, the newly approved version of the law creates multiple loopholes for escaping responsibility or even ignoring requirements for declaring incomes and assets by civil servants. The approved law was shortly criticized by anti-corruption activists. For instance, you can have a look what former Chief Prosecutor Ruslan Riaboshapka wrote on his Facebook page (https://cutt.ly/ghnUFEt). Ukrainian authorities are seeking to return cooperation with the IMF after a series of blunders which started with reshuffle of the NBU management in July. The law, which returns criminal responsibility for inaccurate declarations, target to resolve the crisis that the Constitutional court created in October. However, the proposed version of the law eases requirements and effectively creates multiple opportunities to hide assets from illegal enrichment by paying negligibly small fines for misconducts. I would say this effort will not count. A revised law with tightened requirements will be needed. This means positive signals from the IMF – the Cabinet is desperately seeking for – is unlikely to happen over the upcoming weeks.