«Dog-slippers-chewer», Lada cars for 66 million UAH, and other unexpected valuable possessions in the declarations for 2022

From March 2023 to March of the current year, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NAZK) received around 1,700 requests to submit corrected declarations. Of these, 1,400 individuals took advantage of the opportunity to make amendments.

Errors and issues with units of measurement are perhaps the most common problem among declarants. For example, Ivan Stovpovyi, an employee of the Balakliia City Council, valued his 1978 VAZ 2106 at 66 million UAH in his declaration. This is likely the most expensive Lada (Zhiguli) in Ukraine.

Yuliia Vysotenko, a lecturer at the National Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, noted that her husband received a salary of 259 billion UAH. For comparison, in 2021, her husband’s earnings were 259,000 UAH.

Sergiy Chopko, a third-grade master at the Khmelnytsky Nuclear Power Plant, also made an obvious mistake in his declaration. He reported that his wife, who also works at the same plant, received a salary of over 91 billion UAH for the year 2022. Meanwhile, his own salary amounted to 284,000 UAH for the same period.

The section on “Valuable Movable Property” turned out to be equally rich in errors and interesting discoveries, with some declarants including their pets. One notable example is MP Ustinova Oleksandra, who declared a “dog-slippers-chewer” — a Labrador named Kodi.

The same official also declared a T-shirt as valuable property: “The First T-shirt in Ukraine: Ukraine F**k Corruption.”

Other declarations also feature animals, but they are not as creatively listed, including lions, ordinary cats, mice, parrots, chickens, fish, and so on.

“The way some government officials approach filling out their declarations vividly demonstrates either a lack of understanding of the importance of declaration or disregard for society.

This includes numerous mistakes, inaccuracies, filling in incorrect fields, and so on. At the same time, the lack of a user-friendly interface for correcting errors complicates the process of correcting accidental inaccuracies, and the absence of adequate punishment for mistakes in declarations creates a desire to avoid them,”

commented Oleksiy Ivankin, the founder of OpenDataBot.

It’s worth noting that from the beginning of the full-scale war until the autumn of 2023, officials’ declarations were not being audited. Officials were supposed to submit their data for 2021 and 2022 by the beginning of 2023, and for the past year — by April 2024.