​Ministries of Finance of Lithuania and Ukraine to establish a Coordination Committee for the implementation of the SFS reform and the establishment of the Financial Investigation Service

On February 19, Minister of Finance Oleksandr Danyliuk, State Secretary of the Ministry of Finance Yevgeniy Kapinus and advisors to the Minister of Finance Yana Bugrimova, Sergiy Kovalenko and Yuriy Draganchuk met Vice Minister of the Ministry of Finance of Lithuania Loreta Maskalioviene, Plenipotentiary Minister of the Embassy of Lithuania in Ukraine Gvidas Kerusauskas, Head of the State Tax Inspectorate under the Ministry of Finance of Lithuania Edita Janusiene and Head of the first department for assistance programs “Good Governance and Democratization” of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Martin Klaucke.

As part of the EU program supporting the implementation of the Public Finance Management Strategy, Lithuania will be coordinating assistance to the reform of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine. During the meeting with the delegation of the Ministry of Finance of Lithuania and the EU Delegation to Ukraine, the parties discussed the implementation plan for the reform of the SFS and the customs as well as the creation of the Financial Investigation Service – the single state agency designed to fight financial crimes against the state.

The delegation of the Republic of Lithuania and the EU Delegation to Ukraine expressed its support for the continued reform of the SFS and the customs including all institutional transformations, improvement of the IT infrastructure, engagement of new personnel and the operational reorganization of the SFS.

One of the key issues related to the SFS reform is still the final liquidation of the tax militia and the establishment of a single state agency for fighting financial crimes against the state – Financial Investigation Service.

Oleksandr Danyliuk pointed out that the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine is ready to cooperate with all interested parties to establish a state agency to counteract financial crimes against the state, provided that this cooperation is kept transparent at all stages.

“It is important to establish the Financial Investigation Service as fast as possible and to make it work properly. For this, we must stick to the key principles to ensure the institutional capacity of this state agency, its independence and effective operation. The establishment of the Financial Investigation Service will be an important step in the economic development of our country. We also must ensure that the process of the establishment of the Financial Investigation Service will be transparent for the society in accordance with democratic principles”, the Minister said.

The participants of the meeting agreed to establish a Coordination Committee for the implementation of the SFS reform and establishment of the Financial Investigation Service. The members of the Committee will be representatives of the Ministries of Finance of Lithuania and Ukraine who are responsible for policy-making in the relevant areas. Following the proposal of the Lithuanian side, the Committee will be chaired by the Minister of Finance of Ukraine to coordinate cooperation with the EU in regard to the mentioned reforms.