Rada makes first step to reinstate imprisonment for fraudulent e-declarations

Ukraine’s parliament approved on April 15 the first
draft of a bill (#4651) to reinstate imprisonment for filing fraudulent
electronic declarations or failure to file the declaration by state officials.
The draft was approved by 283 MPs, compared to 226 needed. The bill was
submitted by the president, in line with promises by his office head
made in December. Recall, on Dec. 4, Rada approved a bill to renew criminal responsibility
for fraudulent declarations after the Constitutional Court cancelled
previous legislation on the punishments on Oct. 27. The
December bill was criticized by local experts, the EU and the IMF as a step back from the
anti-corruption reform.

Bill #4651 introduces the option of a two-year prison
sentence for those who fail to submit the e-declaration or under-declare
property by about UAH 4.5 mln. It also increases the penalty by up to 33% (to
UAH 3.4 –  5.7 mln) for those who under-declare their assets by over UAH
1.1 mln. Also, the bill explicitly stipulates that a failure to declare or
under-reporting by UAH 1.1 mln is a corruption criminal offense. The bill can
be approved in full in two weeks.

Ukraine’s NGO Anti-Corruption Action Centre stated in
an April 15 note that MPs did all their best to postpone the approval of this
bill in order to avoid increased punishment for incomplete declarations this
year (the deadline to submit declarations for 2020 was end-March).

Alexander Paraschiy: Approval of such law seems to be one of core preconditions for Ukraine
to restart negotiations with the IMF on the on-going Stand-by program. This, as
well as the fact that no one will be punished under the new law in 2021 makes
this bill’s approval into law very likely (possibly in May).