The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) conducted an anti-corruption review of a draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine introducing one of the European practices into Ukrainian customs legislation — authorisation for customs brokerage activities instead of a permit.
The document revealed provisions that created conditions for corruption. These relate to the non-transparent mechanism of the permanent commission that assesses the compliance of enterprises with the criteria and/or conditions for granting authorisation to carry out customs brokerage activities.
The draft resolution also contained provisions granting the chair of the commission for assessing the compliance of enterprises with the criteria and/or conditions for granting authorisation to carry out other types of activities discretionary powers to decide on the mandatory visits to enterprise facilities.
In its anti-corruption expert opinion, NACP provided recommendations to eliminate the possibility of corruption by commission members who could make decisions in a conflict of interest or abuse their powers to obtain undue benefits from the applicant. Recommendations were also made to eliminate the discretionary powers of the commission head.
The document's developer, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, took into account all of the NACP's recommendations, and the Government adopted this resolution. In particular, it specifies the requirements for commission members and the commission's work, and sets specific deadlines for the procedure for assessing the compliance of enterprises for authorisation to engage in customs brokerage activities.
We would like to remind you that earlier, the NACP conducted an anti-corruption review of other documents regulating the issue of customs reform and provided recommendations for eliminating corruption risks.
In total, since the beginning of the year, the National Agency has provided more than 100 recommendations to the legislators. The vast majority of them were taken into account by the relevant authorities. In particular, taking into account the NACP's comments, resolutions were adopted on the payment of one-time financial assistance in the event of the death or disability of a volunteer and on the provision of state subsidies for housing for family-type children's homes, orphans and children deprived of parental care.
