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

16 April 2021

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).