Tens of thousands of Ukrainian officials filed electronic declarations of their assets, meeting the midnight October 30 deadline that had been imposed. And, not only did officials have to declare their own assets but also those held in the names of their family members. . Thus, their incomes and assets became publicly available in a searchable online database. Given that the average monthly income in Ukraine is $200, the revelations of officials’ wealth – in many cases excessive wealth – was a bombshell. News stories were filled with information on all kinds of assets, from stashes of foreign hard currency to luxury foreign cars, expensive art works, pricy watches and jewelry, and major real estate holdings. Reuters calculated that the 24 members of the Cabinet of Ministers together have nearly $7 million in cash alone.
Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, in an opinion piece published by The Guardian, stated: “We made history in Ukraine last week. For the first time ever, more than 100,000 top officials, including the president, members of the Cabinet, MPs, judges, prosecutors and civil servants, declared their assets under our new e-declaration system. In a statement endorsed by all of Ukraine’s leading civil society organizations, none of whom has been shy to criticize the authorities, they hailed the system as ‘a truly revolutionary step towards eradicating corruption.’ ” Mr. Groysman pointed out that putting this system into place was not easy, as “The guardians of the old system were doing everything possible to prevent this and other changes that we have made to stamp out corruption.” Indeed, there were many obstacles, resulting in delays of the system’s implementation.
Now, Mr. Groysman said, we can “draw a line between politicians of the past, who have never explained the origins of their assets, and politicians of the future of Ukraine, who from now on will be accountable to the people and who must explain where they got their money.” And, if they cannot explain where their wealth came from, they face prosecution and jail time.
Olexandra Ustynova, board member of Ukraine’s grassroots Anti-Corruption Action Center, hailed the e-declarations as “a kind of new revolution for Ukraine,” telling Ukraine Today that the disclosures of luxury gifts and property should prompt investigations by the government’s anti-corruption task force.
The e-declarations will be reviewed by the National Agency for Preventing Corruption. If that body finds suspicious data, it forwards the case to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU). The bureau has already begun examining many officials’ declaration of assets – those in which the assets of an official seem to be beyond his or her lifestyle. “The amount of declarations that raise questions is extremely big,” said Artem Sytnyk, head of the NABU. “This work will be long-lasting and exhausting.”
Writing on November 4 in Foreign Policy, Reid Standis and Ian Bateson note: “The intention of the declarations is first to provide transparency and do away with the corrupt practices that sparked the Maidan protests. Moreover, by making public the wealth of officials, it opens them not only to scrutiny but also potentially to criminal prosecution for a false disclosure — a major accomplishment for a system of government characterized by corruption and influenced by oligarchs.” The writers also acknowledge that the declarations will be “a major test” for Ukraine newly established anti-corruption agencies.
“It’s a miracle what we are now witnessing,” Daria Kaleniuk, the executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, a Kyiv-based NGO, told Foreign Policy. Yet, many anti-corruption activists express doubts that officials have declared all their assets and suggest it is likely they are hiding some of them in offshore accounts.
Nonetheless, there is no doubt that the e-declarations system is a major step on the road to reform in Ukraine. It is also, as noted by President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz and President of the European Council Donald Tusk, part of the newly established system of fighting and preventing corruption in Ukraine. Atlantic Council Senior Fellow Anders Aslund hit the nail on the head when he underscored: “In the end, this is an astounding change in a pervasively corrupt country. After all this transparency, Ukraine’s elite can hardly go back to its old, secretive ways. Both the culprits and their methods of enrichment have been exposed, making it far easier to render Ukraine a more honest society.”