National Agency on Corruption Prevention is authorized to conduct declaration control, one of the types of which is “logical and arithmetic control,” — in fact, we are talking about automated verification of declarations and the NACP must determine the procedure for its implementation.
It is difficult to overestimate the importance of such control because it is fully automated, with no human intervention, in relation to each submitted declaration. For such verification, the agency determines risk indicators when the identification of each leads to an increase in the risk indicator of a certain declaration. Property declarations in which such automated verification reveals inconsistencies are subject to a more thorough and comprehensive verification by NACP officials. The higher the risk indicator of a declaration, the sooner it will be subject to full-scale analysis.
This model is in line with the best practices. In general, comprehensive checks of declarations in which automated verification revealed inconsistencies are to account for approximately 20% of the total number.
According to our information, the new rules of logical and arithmetic control have already started to take effect, but we do not know in what form they were approved. The agency did not actually provide them to the public, they are not published on the site.
However, the NACP does not have any legal grounds for making such a decision: the rules of automated verification a priori do not apply to classified or confidential information and there are no grounds to attribute them to official information from the date of approval of the relevant act. In addition, any restriction of access to public information should be based on the results of the so-called “three-part test,” according to which the restriction can occur only for a limited range of interests, the disclosure of information may harm these interests and the public interest in such information should be smaller than the possible harm from the disclosure of information.
The decision of the NACP to restrict access to the rules of logical and arithmetic control does not meet any of these mandatory conditions and, therefore, is obviously unlawful.
Publication of the rules of automated verification of declarations in previous years allowed to identify shortcomings in them and make constructive suggestions for their elimination. Currently, it is impossible to evaluate whether the rules defined by the NACP are sufficiently effective. The Agency was able to change the rules without any external control or discussion.
The approach taken by the National Agency on Corruption Prevention contradicts the fundamental principles of transparency and openness of the body’s activity. Such illegal decisions undermine public confidence in the activity of the NACP and make effective public control impossible.
The public calls on the Agency to lift the illegal restriction of access to the act that defines the procedure for performing logical and arithmetic control of declarations, as well as to hold full consultations and discussions on approaches to implementing this and other types of control and verification of declarations.
Public Council under the NACP
Anti-Corruption Headquarters
Transparency International Ukraine
Anti-Corruption Action Centre
Automaidan
Anti-Corruption Research and Education Center in Ukraine (ACREC)
Public Control Platform
CSO Center for Media Research Prozoro
Center for Investigative Journalism “Syla Pravdy”
Women’s Anti-Corruption Movement
Network of anti-corruption centers
Chuguyiv Human Rights Protection Group
Slobozhanskyi Resource Center
Creative Association “Nivroku”
Center for Public Monitoring and Research
The approach taken by the National Agency on Corruption Prevention contradicts the fundamental principles of transparency and openness of the body's activity. Such illegal decisions undermine public confidence in the activity of the NACP and make effective public control impossible.