KYIV . UkraineGate . 17 . August .2022 l Society.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation has published draft amendments to Resolution No. 835, which proposes to remove information on declarations and financial statements of officials and legal entities from the Open Data Portal. The founder and CEO of YouControl Sergey Milman believes that the inability to identify and verify companies creates a number of problems in cooperation between counterparties and exacerbates the risks of the financial system of Ukraine .
According to Milman, the closure of registers will lead to negative consequences, which relate, in particular, to the security of the state. Therefore, without the data of the register of declarations, the level of public control over the actions of the authorities will significantly deteriorate, as the process of identifying corruption risks of officials will stop based on the analysis of facts about the dynamics of the property status of declarants.
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“Instead of systematically analyzing corruption problems, we will return to fragmented and selective anti-corruption investigations. In turn, weakening of public control and accountability of the authorities can lead to overspending of budget funds and their inefficient use. And this is especially critical in the context of the current record budget deficit and the “inflation canopy” caused by it, – the figure believes.
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Also, without a basic register for verification, analysis and monitoring of the legal status (USR) of officially registered companies, it is difficult to imagine the normal operation of banks and other financial intermediaries. “The inability to identify and verify companies, their managers, founders and ultimate beneficiaries creates a number of problems in cooperation between counterparties, exacerbates the risks of the financial system of Ukraine and generates numerous violations of the requirements of the legislation in the field of financial monitoring. In particular, in terms of identifying the “Russian trace” in the Ukrainian corporate sector,” Milman said.
The closure of the register of corrupt officials can be compared with targeted sabotage, which will alienate Ukraine from victory, including for reputational reasons. After all, the issues of public control in Ukraine concern not only Western politicians, but also the ultimate donors of international support – taxpayers and voters in these Western countries, according to the head of YouControl.
Also, without official disclosure of financial statements of enterprises, Ukrainians lose the completeness of information and the guarantee of its accuracy from the state. In particular, it becomes impossible to create progressive analytical products for business and the public sector – we are talking about digital tools for express assessment of the financial stability of companies and high-quality economic research for effective public policy and making balanced business decisions. The closure of financial information has a very negative impact on trust between counterparties, employees and employers, and also complicates the process of finding opportunities when reorienting business models of companies in the face of wars to new markets. And this, in turn, at the macro level will restrain the processes of economic recovery of Ukraine.
Lack of license data can lead to massive abuse by unscrupulous manufacturers and service providers. The closure of license data may be justified only in certain areas related to the military-industrial complex, or as part of the process of deregulation and cancellation of legal requirements for licensing.
Open data of the land cadastre and public cadastral map are an important element for the effective implementation of land reform. Information is critical for the banking and agricultural sectors of the economy. As a result of the closure of these data, corruption risks at the local level increase significantly, as the possibility of public control and public monitoring of changes in property rights disappears.
Milman also added that to check the reliability of a business partner, in particular, regarding the integrity in paying taxes, it was enough to use the electronic service “Find out more about your business partner” on the main page of the StS web portal. “Now we will have the risk that the “culture of abolition” initiated by the authorities will result in its disappearance. If this happens, the risks of cooperation with unreliable partners, conducting tax audits and applying tax sanctions will increase. Customers-organizers of public auctions will not be able to verify the information provided by the participants,” Milman explained.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, a number of registers relating to ecology and the state of the environment have been closed. This greatly complicated access to data on air quality, water, level of radiation pollution. And in the conditions of war, in the presence of risks of using tactical nuclear weapons and information about the seizure of nuclear power plants, these data are critically important for society.
It is about closing access to the registers of more than 30 authorities, institutions and state-owned enterprises, as well as local governments and local administrations.
In particular, on the website of the Verkhovna Rada it is proposed to close information about people’s deputies of Ukraine, their activity and property status and information about assistants-consultants of people’s deputies (currently not displayed due to martial law), on the website of the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine to close the Register of Declarations of Family Ties and Integrity (currently not displayed due to martial law), on the website of the CEC – information about polling stations and election commissions, foreign observers and candidates in the elections, as well as information on the number of voters in constituencies (currently all data are not displayed due to martial law).
It is also proposed to close access to the Unified State Register of Animals, the Register of SeaPorts of Ukraine, the Register of Officials’ Declarations, the Register of Corrupt Officials, the Register of Natural Monopolies in the Energy Sector, as well as to financial reports of political parties, information on coal commodity products, fuel movements at energy enterprises (operational data), etc.
Source : Ukrgate
