Representatives of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), the Central Election Commission (CEC), and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) discussed the results of cooperation on the development of the National Elections module and further plans to develop the Local Elections module of the POLITDATA Registry. They also discussed joint advocacy of legislative changes to improve control over election funds. These changes were included in the draft law No. 11462.
The issue of improving state control over the receipt and use of election funds to meet the standards of the European Union is part of the negotiation process on Ukraine's accession to the EU.
"NACP is constantly working on modernizing the POLITDATA Political Party Reporting Register. Digitalization of processes is a priority in the Agency's work: we improve existing tools and modernize them in accordance with the needs of political parties, electoral subjects, NACP and the CEC, so that any paper reports become a thing of the past. In particular, the development of the Register's modules that will enable submission and automated analysis of financial reports of election funds in national and local elections is already at the final stage,” said NACP Head Viktor Pavlushchyk.
According to him, political parties have been able to submit quarterly reports online through the POLITDATA Registry for four years now, while previously they had to submit paper reports. For example, one report could fit into 60 boxes of paper, and it had to be submitted by representatives of political parties and checked manually by NACP employees.
Currently, the Agency, with the support of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) in Ukraine and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is developing additional modules of the Register that will allow submission of financial reports of election funds in the framework of national elections and should replace paper reporting, as it was in previous elections.
Oleh Didenko, Head of the Central Election Commission, noted the effective cooperation with the NACP and said that the improvement of the Register will contribute to the maximum automation of all reporting processes.
Such changes will help simplify the process of submitting financial statements of election funds and avoid mistakes in its formation, given the rapidity of the election process. The new modules of the Register are designed in such a way that the report of the election fund manager is generated automatically.
This will have a positive impact on increasing the transparency of campaign finance, which is one of the key elements of international standards and instruments in this area, in particular the recommendations of the Venice Commission, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe/Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO).
