On October 11, 2024, NACP presented a new function - partial auto-completion of the draft declaration in the Unified State Register of Declarations of Persons Authorized to Perform State or Local Government Functions (the Register of Declarations). NACP began developing this functionality in 2021, while the need for it was legislated in October 2023, when the Law of Ukraine No. 3384-IX on the restoration of declaration was adopted.
The speakers at the briefing were Viktor Pavlushchyk, Head of NACP, and Yulia Kulikova, Head of NACP Department for Full Inspections. Briefing recording.
"Partial auto-completion of the draft declaration allows the NACP to collect data on the declarant's and their family members' property and income that the state knows about them and to which NACP has automated access. This was achieved thanks to our joint work with other registry holders, which NACP started back in 2021, with the support of the Eastern Europe Foundation under the TAPAS and USAID/UK Dev projects “Support for Digital Transformation”, the relevant Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Ministry of Digital Transformation, and others. Our team has done a huge amount of work so that we can now help the declarant collect information from 14 registers to which NACP has automated access to partially fill in 9 out of 16 sections of the declaration, including those of family members who have agreed to do so, confirming it with the help of the “Diya” mobile application,” said Pavlushchyk.
He also noted that thanks to the new feature, the declarant has the opportunity not only to fill out the declaration faster, but also to see irrelevant information or errors in other registers and correct them, which may be useful in the future. Further increase in the amount of information that can be transferred to the draft declaration is possible if documents are digitized. This will save documents from being lost, which is especially important during a full-scale war, when paper data can be destroyed in an instant.
According to Yulia Kulikova, through 20 joint documents signed with other registry holders in 2021-2023, the amount of information that can be transferred to the draft declaration automatically increased from 31% to 75% of the data to be included in the declaration.
“One AutoFill button involves three steps for the declarant to reach the goal. The first step is to collect information about yourself and your family members through the Data for Declaration function using the Diia mobile app. The second step is to select from the proposed objects of declaration those that should be transferred to the draft declaration and check the accuracy of the data on such objects. The third step is to confirm the transfer of the selected objects to the draft declaration and its submission. I would like to emphasize that automated data transfer does not relieve the declarant of the obligation to indicate in the declaration all information about their assets and income, including additional information that is missing or cannot be transferred from the registers. NACP cares about the declarant and will definitely help them in the process of filling out and submitting the declaration to avoid mistakes and misprints. This, in turn, will allow NACP to focus its attention on verifying really risky declarations,” said the head of NACP Department for Full Inspections.
She also noted that it is possible to generate the “Data for Declaration” certificate once a year, so she advised to generate it during the declaration campaign and to carefully follow the warnings in the certificate, since information from certain registers, such as corporate rights and beneficial ownership, is provided as of the date of the “Data for Declaration” certificate, not at the end of the reporting period.
Already now, all declarants who have previously received the Data for Declaration certificate for 2023 will be able to test the auto-completion by creating a new draft of the declaration, without submitting it. This feature is especially useful for candidates for office, declarants who will file a declaration for the first time, and those who, due to the existing right to postpone the filing deadlines, will file their declarations for 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 at once.
More information is available in the presentation.
Over the years, NACP has been systematically working to improve and simplify the process of filling out declarations for the convenience of public officials. Based on the results of the 2023 declaration campaign, NACP conducted a survey in which 70% of employees said that they spend no more than a few hours filling out the declaration. The vast majority of respondents (91%) said that the tips and descriptions in the Register are the tool that helps them the most when filling out declarations. In addition to the tips in the Registry, officials often refer to the Knowledge Base (71%) and news on NACP website (40%). 69% of respondents noted the usefulness and assistance of the Data for Declaration function, which, starting from March 2024, helps to obtain data on a family member if they give such consent through the “Diya” application at the request of the declarant.
