Rada wants to destroy lifestyle monitoring tool - NACP

The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) calls on the Verkhovna Rada to preserve the lifestyle monitoring tool. This is stated in the NACP's message, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

The NACP notes that the MPs have proposed amendments to Article 51-4 "Monitoring the Lifestyle of Declaring Subjects" of the Law "On the Prevention of Corruption" (12374-d), which may destroy the lifestyle monitoring tool (LMT), which is implemented by the National Agency.

"At the next plenary session, the MPs of Ukraine will consider amendments that will significantly limit the NACP in verifying the legality of the assets of officials," the message says.

The NACP appealed to the Verkhovna Rada with a request to defend the preservation of the tool, which has proven its effectiveness in combating corruption.

The National Agency emphasizes that the proposed changes will complicate the verification of dubious assets, in particular, they will make it impossible to analyze assets received for public service, and will create corruption risks by allowing declarants to indicate missing assets for their subsequent legalization.

The NACP in particular notes that among the proposed changes that will be considered by the MPs:

limiting the LMT only to the period of stay in the status of a declarant, which will make it impossible to assess the legality of previously acquired assets and will provide an opportunity to explain the origin of assets with legal income before the start of public service, this creates a risk of legalization of unfounded assets and exemption from liability after dismissal;

carrying out the LMT only for the declarant and his family members, which will allow dishonest officials to register assets in the name of third parties without the possibility of their detection, while the current monitoring procedure allows for the detection of such cases;

limiting the term of the LMT to three months, while monitoring requires more time to analyze a large amount of data, conduct international inquiries and detailed analysis of financial documents; even simple lifestyle monitoring can last six months, in complex cases - more than a year, thus the proposed terms will make effective detection of corruption impossible.

The NACP draws attention to the fact that Article 290 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine allows recognizing as unfounded assets registered in the name of third parties on behalf of the declarant or if an official can directly or indirectly perform actions with respect to such assets that are identical in content to exercising the right to dispose of them. This is the institution of civil confiscation, which has proven its effectiveness.

"The proposed changes are aimed at limiting the exclusive powers of the National Agency and eliminate such an important financial control tool as the LMT, which will certainly have a negative impact on its effectiveness. At the same time, the legislation does not limit the powers of other law enforcement agencies in collecting evidence regarding the unfoundedness of assets in accordance with Article 290 of the Code of Civil Procedure of Ukraine. Moreover, such changes will lead to a rollback in matters of control over the assets of public servants through the LMT, the increase in the effectiveness of which has recently been noted by international institutions and experts," the report says.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the state budget for 2025 provides for an increase in funding for the NACP by UAH 200 million, with UAH 1.483 billion allocated for the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (against UAH 1.276 billion in 2024), while taking into account the proposal to allocate an additional UAH 143.6 million to the NACP to increase official salaries.