Technical errors are no longer a basis for liability: how did the NACP improve the quality of full verification of declarations in 2020?

One of the main priorities of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) in 2020 was to improve the quality of full verification of declarations. It was fundamentally important for us to shift away from the Agency’s old practice of picking on “misprint” in declarations in order to proceed to the detection of actual violations amounting to UAH millions. Thus, among the 97 individuals in whose declarations the NACP found signs of criminal violations, 5 are Ministers of the current and former Governments, 12 Deputy Ministers and 7 judges. To this end, in 2020, the NACP, inter alia, ensured the following:

1. If the error in the declaration did not concern money, the declarant was not held liable. For example, some declarants might have chosen “Not available” or “Not applicable” instead of a cadastral land plot number. During the verification of declaration, the NACP clarified the relevant cadastral number, notified the declarant and provided an opportunity to correct the error in the declaration.
2. Online communication instead of hard copy letters. It’s hard to believe, but before the NACP was rebooted, the Agency’s staff communicated with declarants during a full verification via hard copy letters. Only in 2020, after change in NACP leadership, the declarants were able to send emails to authorized persons in the Agency. Also, it is possible to submit information to the NACP through a personal account in the Register of Declarations.
3. Declarants had an opportunity to provide explanations so that technical errors were not considered violations. Only 25 officials did not exercise their right to provide explanations. The explanations were provided by Ministers, MPs and Judges.
4. Clear clarifications on filling out declarations have been prepared and convenient services were put in place. Assistance in filling out declarations was provided to all on equal terms. Each declarant could call the Contact Center established in 2020, find clarifications on the deklaruy.org.ua portal and use the chatbot. This greatly facilitated filling out of declarations.

“Our task is to prevent violations. We understand that filling out declarations is a responsible and quite complex process. This is why we try to make it easy for honest declarants, while saving all the “traps” for the corrupt,” said Roman Sukhostavets, Deputy Head of the NACP.