The Law partially restoring NACP authorities has come into effect

Today, on December 30^th, the Law of Ukraine No. 1079-ІХ “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Corruption Prevention” with regard to restoring the mechanism for corruption prevention, and the Law of Ukraine No. 1074-IX “On Amendment to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine regarding Liability for Declaring False Information and Failure to File a Declaration of the Person Authorized to Perform the Functions of the State or Local Self-Government” by the declaring subject, came into effect. Thus, from this day forth, the powers of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (the NACP), which the Agency was deprived of based on the Constitutional Court of Ukraine’s Decision No. 13-р/2020, have been restored. We would like to bring to the attention of declaring subjects that as of 30.12.20 the provision has been in force that requires filing notices on material changes in financial status regarding expenditures and income for an amount exceeding 50 minimum subsistence levels (UAH 105.1 thousand).

“After two months ‘on hold’, the NACP can finally resume operations in all areas.  I must note that the work of the NACP cannot be resumed at once. After all, the new law introduces a series of changes, which require that we adopt updated regulatory acts to ensure full-fledged resumption of work.  The law provides for up to two months to amend the procedures for comprehensive verification of declarations, approval of those with the HCJ and the Constitutional Court, and the state registration in the Ministry of Justice”, – the NACP Head, Oleksandr Novikov, stated.

Earlier, the NACP expressed three substantial comments to the adopted law:

1. The Law required that the NACP inform the High Council of Justice or the CCU on commencement of lifestyle monitoring of any judge. Because of this, any measures on monitoring lifestyles of judges will fail to be efficient.
2. Only the NACP Head and Deputies thereof, shall be authorized to issue protocols with regard to judges. This can set a dangerous precedent — the issuance of certain procedures for certain categories of offenders and is grossly contrary to the existing practices of issuing protocols by other agencies.
3. The law requires that the NACP create a “queue” of declarations using software applications and to inform the declarant of placing him/ her in such a queue. As a result, the NACP may be forced to verify 300 declarations of “Presidents”, as the queue must be fully automated.  

Tomorrow, on 31.12.2020, the Law of Ukraine No.1080-ІХ “On Amendments to the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offences regarding Establishing the Special Aspects of Issuing Administrative Offences Protocols provided for by Articles 172-4-172-9 and 188-46, 212-15 with regard to a judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine” shall also come into effect. The NACP draws attention to the fact that full verifications of declarations will be resumed after the entry into force of regulations for the adoption of which the transitional provisions of the Law of Ukraine No. 1079-ІХ set aside 2 months.