The Law No. 3384-IX adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine restored mandatory declarations and the authority of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) to verify them. The deadlines for submitting declarations for three years (2021-2023) overlapped in time so that by the end of the first quarter of 2024, about 2.5 million declarations will be submitted to the Register of Declarations. The NACP's task is to focus on those declarations that contain signs of illegal enrichment, unjustified assets, failure to declare assets, etc. That is why the NACP team has developed and is implementing a radically new approach to the selection of declarations for verification and the verification itself.
It will allow to verify the maximum number of submitted declarations, optimize the process of conducting inspections and increase the efficiency of full inspections of declarations.
It is planned to verify up to 30% of all submitted declarations automatically using the software of the Register of Declarations. And for full audits by the NACP's authorized persons, the NACP will first select declarations that contain signs of illegal enrichment or unjustified assets.
How will it work?
The new approach is based on risk assessment, which is carried out by
- analyzing the declaration data and identifying risks in it (inconsistencies between the declaration data and data from registers, databases, and the operation of certain formulas, for example, for signs of illegal enrichment or unjustified assets) using logical and arithmetic control;
- determining the weighting factor of each of the risks (discrepancies) identified in the declaration;
- calculating the risk rating of the declaration (defined as the sum of the coefficients of all identified risks (inconsistencies);
- ranking of all declarations by the value of the risk rating indicator (from highest to lowest).
In the future, depending on the risk rating of the declaration, the method of its verification will be chosen - automated or by an authorized person of the NACP.
Automated verification will be carried out for those declarations that have the lowest risk rating and can be verified automatically. The position of the declarant will not matter.
Based on the results of such verification, declarants will receive a certificate in their personal account of the Register of Declarations, which will indicate the discrepancies between the data specified in the declaration and the data of registers and databases to which the NACP has automated access.
Obtaining such a certificate does not give the right to submit a corrected declaration; it can be used to correctly fill out the declaration for the next period or to correct data in the registers (if they are out of date).
NACP receives information from the following registers and databases to conduct automated verification of declarations: The Unified State Demographic Register, the State Register of Real Rights (regarding information on registered real property rights that arose after January 1, 2013), the State Land Cadastre, the Unified State Register of Vehicles, The Shipping Register of Ukraine, and the Ship Book of Ukraine, the State Register of Civil Aircraft of Ukraine,State Register of Movable Property Encumbrances, the public information database of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission on the securities market the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Private Entrepreneurs, the State Register of Individuals - Taxpayers, the Register of Insured Persons of the State Register of Compulsory State Social Insurance and the Inheritance Register.
The NACP employees will conduct a full review of the selected declarations with the highest risk rating, as well as upon reports from individuals and legal entities, law enforcement agencies, and investigative journalists containing information on possible failure to declare assets. In this case, a full check will be carried out regardless of the automated verification of the declaration beforehand.
The risk-oriented approach will allow the NACP to focus on verification of declarations with the highest risk rating and increase the effectiveness of financial control measures, while the automated verification mechanism will significantly increase the number of verified declarations in general. This approach will also make it possible to identify the sectors of the economy and public authorities in which declarants with declarations with the highest/lowest risk rating work.
As a reminder, annual declarations for 2021-2022 must be submitted by January 31, 2024, and for 2023 - by March 31, 2024 inclusive.
In the future, the NACP will explain in detail how the new tools will work, so follow the NACP's official pages on Telegram and Facebook.
Read about the new feature to facilitate the declaration filling process here.
