“Ukraine will have its Financial Investigation Agency!”, the Minister of Finance makes his message clear during the meeting with experts of the Reanimation Package of Reforms, representatives of the business community and MPs

Today, Minister of Finance Oleksandr Danyliuk has participated in a discussion with experts on the creation of a Financial Investigation Agency. The discussion was also attended by MPs Andriy Zhurzhiy and Oksana Prodan, experts of the Reanimation Package of Reforms, representatives of the Coalition for the De-Shadowing of the Economy, representatives of the US Chamber of Commerce as well as the Association of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs, the Civil Platform “Taxes for Economic Freedom”, the Coalition for Liberal Reforms and public activists.

The main goal is to prevent the revival of the tax militia and to create a new Financial Investigation Agency.

“It should be a public agency really working for the state, disclosing economic violations which inflict billions of losses for the state budget and pose a threat to the national security. This Agency shall apply a non-violent approach; it must operate as an analytical unit instead. The personnel selection for this Agency must be fair and transparent. The success of the Agency will depend on professionals working there”, Minister of Finance Oleksandr Danyliuk said.

The participants of the meeting also agreed that it is unacceptable to again grant enforcement powers to the tax militia, which is proposed in the draft law No. 0940 which is due to be discussed at the Parliament on February 23.

Member of Parliament Andriy Zhurzhiy said in this regard: “Tax militia is now out of law, any claims that the state interests are affected by this situation are not correct. The officially acknowledged effectiveness of the tax militia is tens of times lower than declared by the management of the State Fiscal Service, which is why the country will not suffer any economic losses due to its liquidation. If we keep the tax militia working, it will be affecting businesses and the investment climate of the country”.

Oksana Prodan expressed her opinion as well: “The adoption of laws contrary to the Parliament procedures resulted in the currently unclear status of the tax militia.This is a good reason for all of us – the Government, the Parliament and experts – to make efforts to adopt a law setting transparent and clear powers of the agency which will be in charge for financial investigations in Ukraine”.

“The tax militia was one of the most oppressive and corrupt state authorities, that is why experts have no doubt it must be liquidated. It must be replaced by a transparent analytical unit reporting to the Ministry of Finance which will be in charge for financial investigations. We appeal to the Parliament to turn down the draft law No. 0940 which is aimed to reinstall the oppressive tax militia. Instead, we ask the Parliament to wait, till the Government submits its draft law on the Financial Investigation Agency, and to examine this draft law first thing”, expert of the Reanimation Package of Reforms V. Dubrovsky said.