Meeting of the Public Council under the GFS

On March 31, a meeting of the Public Council of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine was held. A number of issues were considered at this meeting. They were talking about an issues of the Ministry of Finance and institutional reforms in the GFS. And also about no less relevant issues of countering corruption in this department. In particular, during the meeting participants discussed the concept of reforming the GFS, initiated by the Ministry of Finance and approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on March 29. Also, the need for public discussion with the public participation of the road map, which will be developed as part of the implementation of the concept, was stressed.

The results of fighting corruption in the bodies of the GFS during 2016 and the first quarter of 2017 was one of the issues that had arisen the interest of the participants, as well as the prospects for improving the infrastructure of customs posts by deducting 10% of the excess of the fulfillment of planned revenues from customs payments. Corruption is the main scourge of Ukraine, and of the whole civilized society. As a matter of principle, despite some shortcomings, there is a fight against this shameful phenomenon in the State Fiscal Service. Only in 2016, the departments of internal investigations launched 189 criminal cases involving employees of the customs sphere. The customs officers of the GFS were given 67 notifications of suspicion. The court sent 39 criminal proceedings with indictments, which is 3.5 times more than in 2015.

Nevertheless, customs, unfortunately, still remains the most corrupted unit in the GFS system. The heads of the Service themselves admit that the level of corruption in customs departments is almost twice as high as in the tax departments. However, the leadership of the GFS assures that it will continue to struggle resolutely with this.

The situation in the field of taxes and government fees, like in the whole country, remains complicated, but there are positive trends. “Public councils of both departments have an excellent opportunity to solve issues that are extremely important for taxpayers and the state as a whole. We have already felt the effect of such joint work,  considering individual issues. Therefore, our deliberative institutions should be more involved in drafting of normative documents to maintain the balance of interests of the state and business, “- said the chairman of the Public Council under the GFS Dmitry Alekseenko.

The fight against corruption depends not only on the authorities, but on each of us. The State Fiscal Service asks to report the facts of extorting bribes to the hotline phones or via the official page.