PRESS RELEASE
June 23, 2015
Two Years of Imprisonment for False Declarations
The expenses of the Ukrainian senior officials who work in law enforcement and in the highest court often exceed
their earnings, and salaries of officials do not enable extravagant lifestyles. About one third of declarations are full
of mathematical miscalculations, mistakes or non-conformities. It shows that officials, even those with many years
of work experience in government, do not get used to filling in the declarations and let their income slide. Having
analyzed the declarations of judges and law enforcement officers, Transparency International Ukraine has drawn
such a conclusion. During the regime of Viktor Yanukovych, a similar mode of behavior was observed. That is why,
for two years TI Ukraine has been conducting monitoring of the officials’ declarations, demanding that the
unpublished ones be publicized, and also analyzing the officials’ earnings, showing who is who in the politics of
Ukraine.
Under the law, all state officials of Ukraine are obliged to publicize their declarations with a list of their
income, property, and single fees which do not exceed 80 thousand UAH before the first day of April, each year.
TI Ukraine has analyzed 250 declarations of officials for 2014, paying special attention to the analyses of about 70
declarations of law enforcement officers and judges. Roman Nasirov, the Head of the State Fiscal Service
appeared to be the richest one – he has declared 4.8 million UAH. His deputy Kostiantyn Likarchuk took second
place in the rating of rich men - 2.9 million. The earnings of the Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov, the
judge of the Constitutional Court Oleksandr Tupytskii, and the First Deputy Secretary of National Security and
Defense Council of Ukraine Oleg Gladkovskii (Svynarchuk) also rose beyond one million. Oleg Gladkovskii is also
leading the charts in terms of living space – he has declared 2.2 thousand square meters of housing. Oleksandr
Turchynov, the secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), has the largest sum in
banking accounts – 11.4 million, and the wife of Vasil Paskal, the Deputy Minister of internal Affairs, has declared
the largest number of cars - Mitsubishi Pajero, Mercedes-Benz and two Chevrolet Niva.
According to the project coordinator of “Declaration without decorations", senior analyst of TI Ukraine
Dmytro Yakymchuk, the examination of officials’ declarations showed total conflicts of interest between the
liabilities of the public officials and their own interests, and also non-conformity of salaries of many senior
officials. “Arsen Avakov, for example, having the income of 1.29 million UAH has not declared any transport at all.
Prosecutor general Viktor Shokin with the joint income of 950 thousand UAH, the Head of the Supreme Court of
Ukraine Yurii Baulin, who got 608 thousand UAH last year, Supreme Court deputy head Anatolii Yarema with the
salary of 391 thousand UAH per year also get about town without any transport. It is strange, but I haven’t seen
them in on public transportation. Oleg Gladkovskii, the First Deputy Secretary of National Security and Defense
Council of Ukraine, for example, doesn’t have an apartment, instead the members of his family own as many as 6.
A strange situation arose around Oleg Bliashenko, Deputy Head of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine. He
has declared the lowest salary among senior officials – 26’152 UAH, still having two apartments and three cars. I
wonder if he had enough money to pay for rent and the transport service? Homeless Agiia Akhundova, first Head
deputy of the State Enforcement Service, having the income of 84 thousand UAH managed to pay 152 thousand
on credit, and 55 thousand on optional insurance. The mismatch must also be investigated by corresponding
authorities”, stated Yakymchuk.
“We have set ourselves a challenging task; declarations of officials are often beyond the reach of the
general public. We even had to make a request to the Prosecutor's Office for some ministries and state agencies
to hear us and give the declarations of their head officials”, stated Andrii Marusov, chairman of the board of
Transparency International Ukraine. He pointed out that until quite recently a state official has not taken any
responsibility for false information in his or her declaration, and now, according to the amendments to the Draft
Law “On Preventing Corruption” false data in a declaration can be seen as unjust enrichment, and is punished
with imprisonment up to two years. Also the top officials must state in their declarations not only the property
registered in their name, but the one they really use. Marusov stated that until the provision of law came into
force, according to which all the declarations of officials will be gathered in the electronic version of the Unified
State Register, TI Ukraine will put these documents in its own public electronic register as it was last year. Today,
this register numbers more than 500 declarations. As a result of the campaign, more than 60 corrupt officials
were revealed.
Olga Tymchenko, the Head of Communications of TI Ukraine, in her turn, specified: “Recently TI Ukraine
has filed two lawsuits against the Cabinet of Ministers concerning the major breach of anti-corruption legislation
while forming the public part of the tendering committee of the National Agency for the Prevention of
Corruption. We consider the elections to the governing body that will provide control of the state officials’
declarations must be held as transparently as possible, and without any manipulations. Until then, we are waiting
for the court decision and the re-election of the committee, monitoring the declarations of the officials and doing
our own electronic register on a voluntary basis. Following the declarations of the officials after the events of the
Revolution of Dignity must become a habit and a style of life for everyone. And our mission is to implement such a
style. According to Tymchenko, the officials’ respect for society is expressed through public integrity. A
declaration is always a test of transparency and integrity, and thus respect. If an official intentionally indicates
false data, withholds incomes, doesn’t publicize the declaration on time, he/she has to be punished in accordance
with the law, up to imprisonment.”
Transparency International Ukraine and Dnipropetrovsk Coordination-Expert Center for Regulatory Policy within
the framework of the second stage of the national campaign “Declarations without decorations” gathers data from
senior officials and compares them with the real lifestyle. An electronic map of all the declarations is found here:
http://anticorruption.in.ua/declarations/map
The project is supported by the International Renaissance Foundation
Media contact: Olga Tymchenko,
Communications Department Head
Transparency International Ukraine
mobile +38 050 352 9618,
e-mail: tymchenko@ti-ukraine.org
Transparency International Ukraine is a national chapter of the global anticorruption non-governmental organization Transparency International
which has over 90 national chapters and works in more than 100 countries
of the world. The mission of TI Ukraine is to limit the expansion of the level
of corruption in Ukraine by promoting transparency, accountability and
integrity of the public authorities and civil society. You can learn more
about the organization’s activities мat www.ti-ukraine.org.
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