Draft Law No. 14209: A Mission to Unblock the NACP Audit

On November 13, Anastasiia Radina, the Head of the Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy, submitted to Parliament Draft Law No. 14209 amending the Law of Ukraine on Corruption Prevention to enable the conduct of an external independent assessment of the effectiveness of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention. 

This draft law is a response to the mention of the Agency in the “Mindych tapes” case. At the request of NACP’s Public Council, the Head of the Agency promised to conduct an internal investigation into the institution’s possible involvement in the corruption scandal at Energoatom.

The draft law proposes amending the Law of Ukraine on Corruption Prevention regarding the conduct of an external independent assessment (audit) of the Agency’s effectiveness. This process is currently blocked because the Ministry of Justice has been delaying the approval of the criteria and methodology for carrying it out. While the draft law awaits consideration in the committee, let us take a closer look at what it contains.

Brief conclusions:

• The draft law sets clear timeframes for launching the external assessment of the NACP’s performance and assigns responsibility for approving the assessment methodology and criteria to the Commission itself, rather than the Cabinet of Ministers. 
• It also introduces an additional ground for the government to prematurely dismiss the Head of the Agency if the Commission concludes that they have not properly fulfilled their duties.
• In TI Ukraine’s view, the proposed amendments are necessary and deserve support.

What is it like now?

Although the Law on Corruption Prevention requires a mandatory biennial audit of the NACP’s activities, the last assessment was conducted more than two years ago and covered the period from 2020 to 2021. Since then, the Agency has a new Head, but many ineffective practices remain. The European Commission also notes this in its latest report.

Given the NACP’s lack of transparency and insufficient accountability, an international expert audit of the Agency’s effectiveness in 2024–2025 (the first two years of the new Head’s term) is a constructive step toward improving the quality of corruption-prevention policy and declaration verification. 

Before this, however, the audit methodology and criteria adopted in 2020 must be updated, as they have proved overloaded and flawed. This has not been done under three Ministers of Justice; instead, the Ministry continues to consult the NACP on these documents, allowing the Agency, despite its inherent conflict of interest, to significantly influence their content. 

The current version does not include an assessment of the NACP’s new mandate in the field of lobbying, and the mathematical threshold for determining inefficiency sufficient to dismiss the Head is excessively demanding and unrealistic. The methodology and criteria also fail to account for the individual inefficiency or misconduct of the Agency’s Head. Therefore, it would be reasonable for the Assessment Commission, rather than the government, to approve the new documents, similar to the approach provided in the Law on the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine.

Amendments proposed in the draft law

Draft Law No. 14209 proposes supplementing Article 14 of the Law on Corruption Prevention, which regulates oversight of the NACP, with a provision requiring the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to adopt a decision to initiate formation of the Assessment Commission no later than thirty calendar days before the expiry of two years from the date of approval of the Agency’s most recent external independent assessment report. 

The draft law also proposes that, within one month of its composition being approved, the Assessment Commission must adopt and publish the criteria and methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of the National Agency, based on its statutory mandate. This includes adopting criteria for determining when the Head of the NACP has improperly performed their duties and criteria for assessing the overall effectiveness of the National Agency. 

The draft law further proposes adding improper performance of duties by the Head of the Agency as a ground for early dismissal under Article 5(5) of the Law, which sets out the conditions for terminating the Head’s powers.

Conclusions

Transparency International Ukraine fully supports the adoption of Draft Law No. 14209, which will finally establish an effective mechanism of external oversight over the NACP’s work, eliminate abuses related to delaying the audit, and ensure real accountability of the Agency’s leadership for inefficiency or improper performance of duties. 

Introducing updated, objective, and independently approved assessment criteria is a key condition for strengthening trust in Ukraine’s anti-corruption system and improving its effectiveness, especially against the backdrop of recent corruption scandals.

At the same time, despite our support for the proposed amendments, it appears paradoxical that launching the mechanism of external oversight of the NACP — already explicitly provided for in current legislation — requires additional legislative intervention to ensure its actual functioning.