New government resolution to help reject the appointment of dishonest candidates to high positions based on the results of special inspections

On August 27, the Government of Ukraine adopted a resolution approving a new version of the Procedure for conducting a special inspection of persons applying for high positions with an increased risk of corruption.

The procedure was developed by the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP).

“Special inspections of persons applying for high positions should screen out people who clearly cannot be high officials. NACP hopes that the approval of the new Procedure will encourage the renewal of the process of vetting candidates for positions where integrity is the first professional component,” — Head of NACP Oleksandr Novikov said.

The updated Procedure takes into account issues that were not addressed in the previous version of the document. In particular:

• the grounds for which a request for a special inspection may be returned to the candidate without consideration are defined;

• it is possible to interact and exchange information about the applicant for the position during a special check between the bodies (subdivisions) that conduct it in electronic form;

• the specifics of conducting a special inspection for certain positions are defined:

• the position provides access to a state secret;
• staff members of intelligence agencies;
• candidates who hold positions related to state secrets, and/or the positions of staff members of intelligence agencies, or who have been dismissed from such positions.

In addition, the Procedure now contains a list of reasons for which the responsible authorities may refuse to appoint a candidate to a position, namely:

1) submission of forged documents or false information;

2)  inaccurate information in the electronic declaration in the amount of more than 100 subsistence minimums (227,000 UAH for the declaration for 2021);

3) the candidate for the position is on the list of lustrated persons (if the person is subject to the prohibitions provided for in part 3 or 4 of article 1 of the Law of Ukraine “On Lustration”);

4) not being on military registration at the place of residence or evading military registration of an applicant for a position who is a conscript, or reservist;

5) the applicant for the position has citizenship of a foreign state.