The draft law of the Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Law Enforcement offers “sanatorium” conditions for corrupt officials

On November 30, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) noted that the draft law No. 4441, developed by the Working Group, envisaged only fines and community service for officials that intentionally failed to submit declarations or knowingly provided false information. Yesterday, on December 3, the Committee on Law Enforcement of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine considered this and other related draft laws. As a result of consideration, it was decided to submit a new draft law (No. 4460-d). The NACP notes that this draft law also does not envisage imprisonment for either intentional declaration of inaccurate information or for intentional failure to submit a declaration. However, individuals that intentionally indicate inaccurate information for as much as 4,000 amounts of minimum subsistence level (UAH 8.4 million) should be punished by restriction of liberty (but not imprisonment) for up to 2 years. That is, the maximum punishment for a corrupt official to stay in a correctional center, where he/she will be able to freely use means of communication (telephone, Internet) and leave the center with permission of its management. Also, in 6 months the possibility of registration of such an official can be considered – he/she will no longer need to stay in the center, but only to attend it from time to time. “A corrupt official can deliberately hide information about a painting by Pablo Picasso or the most expensive yacht in the world and get a maximum of two years of “sanatorium conditions”. I am confident that such a proposal of the Committee does not meet the requirements of Ukrainian society,” said Oleksandr Novikov, NACP Head. The NACP continues to hold to a unified stand: intentionally providing inaccurate information amounting to more than UAH 1 million should entail imprisonment. At the same time, the draft laws that can become the basis for addressing the issue, in our opinion, are the following:

•  4434, initiated by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky;

No. 4304, registered on the initiative of Dmytro Razumkov, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and 124 other MPs (envisages criminal liability in the form of imprisonment for up to 2 years for intentionally declaring inaccurate information amounting to more than 250 amounts of minimum subsistence level (UAH 525.5 thousand) and intentional failure to submit a declaration. In order for this initiative to be implemented, during the finalization of the draft law, the Article of the Criminal Code, which establishes such liability, should have received a different number than the one that was abolished);

•  4310–1, initiated by Serhiy Ionushas, Denys Monastyrsky and Andriy Kostin, MPs of Ukraine;
•  4310, submitted by Iryna Herashchenko, MP and other representatives of the ‘European Solidarity’ faction.