Viktor Pavlushchyk, Head of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), took part in a meeting of the Steering Committee of the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine (EUACI). They discussed the interim results of the project, whose main task is to support Ukraine's anti-corruption infrastructure, cooperation with anti-corruption agencies, and further plans.
Viktor Pavlushchyk shared the key achievements of the National Agency, including the resumption of mandatory e-declaration and reporting by political parties, progress in implementing the State Anti-Corruption Program until 2025, and the launch of the Whistleblower Reporting Portal, which as of April 2024 has 294 organizations connected to it, including the NABU, the Prosecutor General's Office, the National Police, and the State Bureau of Investigation.
The NACP Head also noted positive changes in the anti-corruption infrastructure, including the adoption by the Parliament of a law on the independence of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.
In addition, Pavlushchyk outlined the main challenges facing the National Agency, including verification of declarations submitted for three reporting periods, which is about 2 million declarations, and party reports for four years. “Full verification of declarations has already begun. So far, the National Agency has found inaccurate information worth more than UAH 56 million and unjustified assets worth almost UAH 1.3 million. The NACP applies a new risk-oriented approach to inspections, according to which the inspection is carried out not by position, but by the highest risk rating of the declaration,” said the NACP head.
In addition, the NACP team has already received nearly 19 thousand reports from parties and their regional branches for verification within 90 days of receipt. Within 10 calendar days of the deadline for submission of reports by political parties, the NACP will publish a list of parties that have not submitted their reports on time and will ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.
Viktor Pavlushchyk also drew attention to the resumption of special checks, which are crucial for the appointment of candidates for public service. At the moment, the NACP is processing more than 14 thousand packages of documents, which is a heavy load, but the Agency will cope with it.
Following the adoption of the Law on Lobbying in March, the NACP started working on the creation of the Transparency Register, which should be launched by January 1, 2025. The next step will be to develop the Rules of Ethical Conduct for Lobbying Entities with the involvement of a wide range of the public and potential lobbyists in their development.
Among the challenges for the entire anti-corruption infrastructure, Viktor Pavlushchyk noted the need to increase the number of staff and create an expert institution of the NABU to strengthen the institutional capacity of the body, develop and approve the Unified Indicators for Assessing the Integrity and Professional Ethics of Judges by the HCJ, and emphasized the need for the Parliament to adopt a number of laws to address, in particular, the following issues:
- the jurisdiction of the HACC to consider cases of administrative offenses related to corruption against top officials;
- inadmissibility of abuse of procedural rights by participants in criminal proceedings;
- improving the institution of plea agreements in criminal proceedings;
- introduction of a one-man court review of criminal proceedings in the HACC as a court of first instance.
Allan Pagh Kristensen, Head of the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine (EUACI), said that among the key areas of the program's development was the implementation of the EU recommendations, such as the restoration of electronic declaration, regulation of lobbying at the legislative level, and strengthening the institutional capacity of anti-corruption agencies.
“Despite the difficulty of the tasks, we managed to achieve the desired result in all areas. It is worth noting that the election of the new Head of the NACP was held in a transparent and open procedure, and the recruitment of staff to the anti-corruption agencies has already begun. In the near future, EUACI will focus on three areas. The first is European integration in the context of supporting Ukraine's anti-corruption efforts. The second aspect is reconstruction, where we are working on creating a legal framework for the reconstruction process based on transparency, integrity and accountability. And the third area is what we can call the resilience of the anti-corruption infrastructure. It is important for us to make sure that anti-corruption agencies can continue their work, even in these difficult circumstances, and become more resilient in the future,” said Allan Pagh Kristensen.
The NACP Head noted that only joint work of the anti-corruption agencies and implementation of the State Anti-Corruption Program by all state institutions will lead Ukraine to a future in the EU. He also thanked the leadership of EUACI, the EU Delegation to Ukraine and the Embassy of Denmark in Ukraine for their support of anti-corruption measures.
For reference: The Steering Committee of the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine (EUACI) meets twice a year. The Steering Board of the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine is a mechanism for joint decision-making on the implementation of the Program. Steering Committee consists of the representatives of the Royal Danish Embassy to Ukraine, EU Delegation to Ukraine and heads of key Programme beneficiaries: National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine (HACC), Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecution office (SAPO), National Agency of Corruption Prevention (NACP), State Service of Financial Monitoring of Ukraine (SFMS), Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA), and others.
