Ukraine Enhances Measures to Ease Access to Public Information

KYIV, Ukraine, May 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych signed two decrees related to the new Law on access to public information which will come into force on May 9, 2011. The decrees enforce control over the implementation mechanism of the Law and assign the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to allocate the necessary funding required to implement it.

The new decrees stipulate the unconditional fulfillment of the Law on access to public information by Ukrainian government executive bodies and enforce constitutional rights of individuals to freely collect, store, use and disseminate information within Ukrainian legislation. In addition, the government executive bodies have to come up with unified approach for registration, storage and use of proprietary information.

The objective of the Law on Access to Public Information, adopted on January 13, 2011 by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Parliament of Ukraine - Ed.), is to expand the rights of citizens to obtain information from public bodies, which would make the work of officials more open and transparent and, consequently, increase control over public power, reports an advisor to the president of Ukraine Olena Lukash. One of the most important features of the Law is the personal responsibility of the heads of central and local executive bodies to properly ensure proper implementation of the law including granting population access to public information.

The new measures and the Law on access to public information are a part of a series of reforms in judicial, criminal justice, tax, and public administrative sectors, that Ukraine started to introduce in 2010. The new Law on Principles of Prevention and Combating Corruption in Ukraine is another integral part of national reforms.

The anticorruption law stipulates that government officials and their close relatives now are obliged to declare their income and, what is more important, any expenses that exceed their income and publish such financial declarations in the official press.

The anticorruption law will take effect on July 1, 2011, except for the article on financial control, which will come into force as of Jan. 1, 2012. The new law requires all government officials including head of the state and members of the parliament to bear criminal and/or administrative responsibility for acts of corruption.