Restoring public access to the Register of Declarations: what was decided during the urgent meeting of the National Security and Defense Council convened by the President

Today, President Volodymyr Zelensky urgently convened a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council to review the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, which was attended by the Head of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention Oleksandr Novikov. The President categorically disagreed with the abolition of electronic declaring. He also noted that the dismantling of NACP’s control functions and criminal liability for knowingly violating the law when submitting the declarations will never be perceived by either Ukrainian society or European partners. Thus, during the meeting of the National Security and Defense Council it was decided to:

• restore public access to the Unified State Register of Declarations;
• ensure special NACP’s inspections;
• ensure NACP’s access to registers and databases by the state bodies and local governments.

“By its decision, the Constitutional Court not only tried to destroy the electronic declarations, but also to paralyze a number of other areas, including special inspections, settlement of conflict of interest, and interaction with whistleblowers. This is the first time when anti-corruption reform faced such a strong setback”, the NACP Head said during the meeting. It should be recalled that by its recent decision, the CCU actually stopped the formation of transparent governance in Ukraine. The existence of such a system is a prerequisite for a competitive and economically developed state, and its dismantling is unacceptable.