1 million 457 thousand declarations were filed by public officials in two years, including 744.6 thousand in 2021 and 712.9 thousand in 2022. However, more than half of these declarations, namely 747 thousand, were filed voluntarily before the law on the renewal of declarations came into force on October 12, 2023: 427.2 thousand in 2021 and 319.6 thousand in 2022. This indicates that the habit of filing declarations has taken root, as well as the openness and integrity of most public officials.
In previous years, before Russia's full-scale invasion, the number of declarations filed was slightly higher: In 2020, almost 792 thousand declarations were filed (annual and after dismissal), in 2019 - 909 thousand. This may be explained to some extent by the possibility of postponing the obligation for some declarants to file a declaration until the end/liberation of martial law.
"The declaration campaign for the reporting periods of 2021 and 2022, which ended yesterday, January 31, 2024, is unique, as the declarant had to submit two, three or four declarations at the same time, and their number and type were determined in almost every case individually. I would like to emphasize that the declaration campaign for 2023 is still ongoing and will end on the usual deadline for declarants - March 31. This is the first time in history that three declaration campaigns have been overlapped in time," said Artem Sytnyk, Deputy Head of the NACP.
The beginning of the full-scale invasion stopped the declaration process for security reasons. After Ukraine managed to restore the processes necessary for the functioning of the country, the NACP consistently advocated for the resumption of e-declaration. Throughout the entire political process that accompanied the consideration of the relevant draft laws in the Parliament, the National Agency provided its comments to ensure an effective declaration process as one of the most effective mechanisms for preventing corruption.
After much work, public pressure, and the adoption of the Law of Ukraine on the restoration of mandatory declaration and the NACP's financial control powers, on December 10, 2023, the National Agency opened access to the public part of the Declaration Register.
The law changed certain rules of declaration, so the NACP brought its clarifications in line with the law within a month, and on November 13, 2023, they were published in the Knowledge Base on the NACP website.
Despite a year-and-a-half-long suspension of mandatory declarations and a ban on inspections caused by martial law, the NACP has been systematically working to improve and simplify the declaration process, taking into account security factors.
The approach to selection and verification of declarations has also been changed. Previously, the NACP was obliged to annually verify the declarations of all top officials, so it selected declarations for full verification depending on the category of position. 99% of declarations were not covered by the NACP's systemic control, and verification of other officials was possible only upon citizens' requests, journalistic investigations or in the framework of cooperation with law enforcement agencies. Read more about the change in the principle of selection and verification of declarations and the introduction of a risk-based approach that will allow verifying the maximum number of submitted declarations, optimizing the verification process and increasing the efficiency of full verification of declarations here.
Without waiting for the completion of the declaration campaigns, the NACP started conducting the first 123 full verifications of declarations in January 2024. Among the declarants included in this list are two MPs, five judges, 34 civil servants holding senior positions, two officials of the TAC and others.
The National Agency is grateful to all officials who submitted their declarations on time and continues to work on improving the e-declaration process to make it more convenient for declarants and to enable citizens to monitor the integrity of public officials.
We would like to remind you that the 2023 declaration campaign is open until March 31, 2024. We ask declarants not to rush to form the "Data for Declaration" certificate, as full data on citizens' income will appear in the State Register of Individual Taxpayers no earlier than February 20, 2024. Read more about the Data for Declaration feature here.
