E-declarations for anticorruption activists: new task force

On September 7 President Poroshenko in his address to the Parliament called on the MPs to adopt his draft laws on abolishment of e-declaration requirement for anticorruption activists. However, in mid-July faction of Poroshenko’s Block did not support even inclusion of these draft laws in the agenda of the session.

At the same time, on September  7 the Coordinative Council on Civil Society Development under the President recommended  Council’s task force to develop amendments for respective by-laws in the parliament. However, neither form of consideration of expected amendments, nor the deadlines were adopted.

Such a task force may be used by the Presidential Administration to postpone consideration of the draft law that abolishes e-declaration requirement for anticorruption activists. This has already happened when the President announced creation of a working group in April 2017. In the meantime, new e-declaration campaign shall start on January 1 2018.

The best option for quick abolishment of e-declaration requirement for anticorruption activists without subsequent  deterioration of legal framework for NGO sector will be to adopt Presidential draft laws in the first reading and in general with proposals developed by the civil society.

NGO proposals for respective draft laws include higher thresholds for additional reporting of NGOs,  softer sanctions for failure to report and/or clearer procedure for application of such sanctions for NGOs to have an opportunity to protect themselves against arbitrary application of sanctions as well as rejection of reporting requirement for individual enterpreneurs.

AntAC as a non-profit organization confirms its readiness to report under any rules, established by the state. However, we emphasize that the issue of NGO reporting should not be connected with e-declaration requirement for activists and third parties. AntAC is ready to participate in development of transparency requirements for NGOs.