False information is circulating in the media regarding the alleged conduct by the National Agency on Corruption Prevention of a full verification of the 2021 and 2024 declarations of the former Minister of Justice and Energy, claiming that no significant violations were identified.
This information is based on an article by an expert from Transparency International Ukraine.
The NACP clarifies that financial control measures — specifically, full verifications of declarations and lifestyle monitoring — have not been carried out regarding the former Minister of Justice and Energy.
Based on a received appeal, his "termination" declaration (submitted upon dismissal) has been selected for a full verification, which will be conducted in accordance with the procedure established by law; the results will be made public. His annual declaration for 2025 has not yet been submitted.
Certain publications use the term “automated full verification”, a term that does not exist, a fact that has been repeatedly brought to the attention of representatives of non-governmental organizations.
“Automated verification” and “full verification” are two entirely distinct instruments.
To prevent the manipulation of public opinion regarding the NACP's activities in verifying declarations, the Agency sets out the principal differences between these instruments:
1) Full verification is conducted by an authorised official and constitutes a financial control measure, whereas automated verification is carried out through the software tools of the Register of Declarations by means of an algorithm and serves as an auxiliary tool to assist declarants in completing their declarations;
2) Based on the results of a full verification, a declarant may be held liable, whereas an automated verification certificate does not entail such legal consequences, as it is purely informational in nature;
3) The majority of declarations containing information that can be verified automatically undergo automated verification; all such declarations have a low risk rating (241,000 declarations for 2024 have passed, representing 36% of those submitted), whereas only those that receive the highest risk coefficient are selected for a full verification (approximately 1,000 declarations annually).
Important! The receipt of an automated verification certificate does not mean that a declaration has undergone full verification, nor does it confirm that the information declared is accurate. The NACP may conduct a full verification of such a declaration upon receipt of information regarding possible violations. Conducted automated verifications do not affect the assessment of the effectiveness of the full verifications performed.
The authors of the publications refer to materials from an investigation conducted by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) concerning the activities of certain legal entities located outside Ukraine and expenditures allegedly made through their accounts for the benefit of the declarant and members of his family.
The NACP has repeatedly pointed out to non-governmental organizations and national experts in the anti-corruption sphere that the Agency is not a law enforcement agency and does not carry out operational or investigative actions (searches, interrogations, etc.).
Even in the context of a full verification, there are no international legal grounds for NACP to directly obtain official extracts from foreign registers or information from international jurisdictions, including in relation to offshore companies, bank accounts, and related financial transactions.
The Agency conducts verification on the basis of available information, documents, and explanations provided by the declarant and other persons. Should signs of violations be established, the NACP submits the relevant materials to pre-trial investigation authorities to take measures within their competence.
Pre-trial investigation bodies and courts are not restricted in conducting pre-trial investigation or judicial proceedings without full verification of declaration by NACP.
The NACP endeavors to use its limited resources effectively in conducting verifications, avoiding duplication of other authorities that are already investigating the origin of the assets of declarants and their family members within their respective mandates.
It should be noted that Transparency International Ukraine is part of the global Transparency International network, which brings together 110 countries and is expected to have substantial expertise in anti-corruption and corruption prevention instruments.
We emphasise that the accuracy of public assessments of a public authority's activities is a matter of professional responsibility.
Incorrect interpretation of financial control procedures, including in one's own analytical documents, followed by public commentary based on such interpretation at events involving representatives of international organisations, creates a distorted perception of the NACP's work and undermines trust in the anti-corruption system as a whole.
NACP remains open to a professional dialogue about the application of financial control instruments and the exchange of information with foreign competent authorities, and is ready to provide additional clarifications to avoid incorrect interpretation of concepts when applying various procedures and, as a result, an unobjective assessment of the NACP's activities.
More details on the risk-based approach and the tools of automated verification and full verification of declarations were published here (verification of the accuracy of declared information, determination of the precision of the valuation of declared assets, checking for conflicts of interest, and detecting signs of illicit enrichment or unsubstantiated assets).
