MSEK employees can be held liable only for false declarations. Thus, the law on confiscation of unjustified assets does not apply to them. This was stated by the head of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, Viktor Pavlushchyk, during a telethon, UNN reports.
According to the current legislation, MSEC employees can be held liable only for false declarations. There are two other elements, namely illicit enrichment and unjustified assets, as elements of financial control. In order to bring these people to justice for illicit enrichment and unjustified assets, amendments to the Criminal Code and the Civil Procedure Code are needed
He noted that the NACP is already working on this.
"We started preparing draft amendments to the codes to implement the NSDC decisions this week," Pavlushchyk said.
The NACP head noted that until 2023, MSEC employees did not submit property and income declarations at all.
"As for the wealth and assets of the MSEC representatives, they became declarants only in 2023. That is, they did not file declarations and were not checked by the NACP before," Pavlushchyk said.
He also said that this year the NACP started conducting full audits of the first 7 declarations of the MSEC employees, of which 3 audits have been completed.
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Pursuant to Article 366-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (declaration of false information), the penalty is a fine of 3,000 to 4,000 tax-free minimum incomes, or community service for 150 to 240 hours, or imprisonment for up to 2 years, with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to three years, if such persons knowingly entered in the declaration false information that differs from the true information by 500 to 2,000 subsistence minimums.
At the same time, confiscation of property is not provided for in this article.
Article 368-5 of the CCU (Illicit enrichment) provides for a harsher penalty of imprisonment for a term of 5 to 10 years with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to 3 years.
On the other hand, as explained in by the NACP, the assets of the declarant recognized as unreasonable may be confiscated by the court and recovered by the state budget under the legal mechanism of civil forfeiture at the suit of the SAPO prosecutor.
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In early October, the official of the International Specialized Expert Committee , Tetiana Krupa, and her son, the head of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in Khmelnytskyi region, were exposed for illegal enrichment. During the searches, almost $6 million in cash in various currencies was found in their possession.
The next day, she was taken into custody, and the case was transferred to the NABU.
Soon, the media reported that dozens of prosecutors of the Khmelnitsky region, led by their head Alexey Oleynik, issued a disability.
According to journalists, they were recognized as persons with disabilities in exchange for covering up the corruption schemes of the head of the regional center for medical and social expertise, the aforementioned Tatiana Krupa.
The inspection revealed that 61 prosecutors in Khmelnytskyi have disabilities.
This was the reason why President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy convened a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council.
On October 22, Zelenskyy said that during a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council on the situation with the MSEC and the abuse of disability by officials of various state bodies, a list of solutions was identified that would restore justice. In particular, it is the digitalization of the processes of passing all stages of medical and social expert commissions, real verification of declarations of MSEC members.
President Zelenskyy demands that a draft law be developed that will provide for the liquidation of medical and social expert commissions from December 31, 2024.
On October 23, Health Minister Viktor Lyashko said that the Ministry of Health will adopt an order of the Cabinet of ministersby the end of this week , which will eliminate the central MSEC.
Starting January 1, 2025, Ukraine will completely eliminate MSECsas the system switches to a new approach.
Viktor Lyashko, commenting on his possible resignation, said that he does not appoint or dismiss the heads of the MSECs. He also noted that it is easier to write a letter of resignation than to reform the MSECs.