The Regional Office of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme in the Kirovohrad Oblast organised an info session on the specific aspects of filing declarations in 2024. The partner of the event is the South-Eastern Inter-Regional Directorate of the State Labour Service of Ukraine.
According to Oleh Yaremenko, Head of the Regional Office, resuming the declaration is an important step for increasing the transparency and accountability in the work of local self-government bodies.
“It is currently the active phase of submission of declarations by local self-government employees and members of local councils. Taking into account a number of innovations, we, together with our partners, have prepared an event that will provide exhaustive clarifications,” he said.
As was noted by Anhelina Musienko, Chief Specialist on Prevention and Detection of Corruption of the South-Eastern Inter-Regional Directorate of the State Labour Service of Ukraine, the Law on the Restoration of E-Declaration entered into force on 12 October 2023.
“The declaration campaign for 2021–2022 started at the same time and was open until 31 January 2024 — it has already ended. Declarations for 2023 are submitted according to general rules, that is, until 31 March 2024. Please strictly adhere to the established deadlines and submit the declaration on time. A delay of even one minute will already be interpreted as an untimely submission of the declaration, and the person may be held administratively liable,” she reminded the participants of the event.
According to her, before filling out the declaration, each declaration filer must follow all the requirements of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention and be aware of the Clarifications. In particular, this applies to submission deadlines, declaration filers and assets to be declared, regulations, information, etc.
Anhelina Musienko reminded that the Law of Ukraine “On Prevention of Corruption” and Order No. 449/21 dated 23 July 2021 provide for three types of declarations: annual declaration, declaration upon dismissal and declaration of a candidate for a position. The expert spoke about the specifics of each type of declaration, submission deadlines and other details.
She advised using open official state registers to obtain certain information, such as the State Register of Real Rights to Immovable Property, the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs and Public Organisations, the electronic cabinet on the website of the State Tax Service of Ukraine, etc.
Order of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention No. 249/23 “On Approval of the List of Positions with a High and Increased Level of Corruption Risks” dated 6 November 2023 was analysed. In local self-government bodies, these are the positions of city, town and village heads. The responsible and highly responsible positions of officials were considered separately.
The expert went through all sections of the declaration and provided recommendations for filling in each of them.
The Declaration Filer section of the declaration must indicate the spouse of the declaration filer specified in the first part of Article 3 of the Law of Ukraine “On Prevention of Corruption” and the children of the filer until they reach the age of majority regardless of their cohabitation with the filer.
“The long-term separate residence of spouses due to the requirements of their job, study, treatment, care for parents or children cannot indicate the termination of actual marital relations or their absence. The same applies to living alone for a long time due to a full-scale invasion. For example, if the spouse or children relocated to another city or abroad or if a member of the declaration filer’s family participates in the protection of Ukraine from military aggression, etc.,” the expert explained.
Furthermore, this section should include any persons who lived together, were connected by a shared household, had mutual rights and obligations with the declaration filer, including persons who live together but are not married. This does not apply to persons whose mutual rights and obligations are not of a family nature.
In accordance with the law, the declaration reflects information about real estate privately owned by the declaration filer and their family members, including joint ownership, leased by them or otherwise held under any right of use, regardless of the form of transaction to acquire the right.
“Declarations do not need to include information about modular towns or educational, health care, recreation or rehabilitation facilities where IDPs and other persons who left their homes due to the war temporarily reside. Moreover, the declarations do not include information about real estate property if the property is recognised as destroyed as a result of hostilities, acts of terrorism or sabotage caused by armed aggression of the Russian Federation in accordance with the procedure established by law,” said the expert.
As for movable property, except for vehicles, all property whose value exceeds the threshold set by the Law at 100 subsistence minimums, i.e. UAH 268,400 in 2023, must be declared.
Angelina Musienko emphasised that the Income Including Gifts section should include information on salary, pension, income from renting out property, interest, etc.
“Aid from international organisations and other states does not need to be included in the declaration. This applies only to those declarations whose reporting period fully or partially falls within the period of martial law. At the same time, any aid paid from Ukraine must be declared. This includes assistance for IDPs, the eDopomoga Programme, coverage of living expenses, etc.,” Angelina Musienko explained.
The participants of the event also learned about the declaration of monetary assets. For instance, if the total value of all monetary assets available, as of the last day of the reporting period, to the declaration filer or a member of their family does not exceed 50 subsistence minimums, the assets do not need to be declared.
Should the declaration filer make an error, they may submit a corrected declaration within 30 days after submitting the declaration through their personal e-cabinet, but only once.