The electronic system on the submission and publication of declarations of persons empowered to fulfill functions in the state or in local self-government agencies will start working in 2016.

A total of 238 lawmakers on Tuesday supported bill No. 3755 on amending the law on preventing corruption concerning the operation of the electronic declaration system.

The document was passed with amendments of the initiator of the bill – Vadym Denysenko, not a member of any faction.

In particular, according to the amendments he put to the article of the Criminal Code, providing false information in the declaration will be punished with imprisonment up to two years with a ban on holding corresponding posts for up to three years. According to Denysenko, this article of the Criminal Code comes into force on January 1, 2017.

According to the author of the bill, the changes also apply to the provision, according to which the declaration should contain information on valuable property if the property value exceeds 150 minimal wages (in the current legislation 50 minimal wages).

The changes also stipulate that cash, funds held on bank accounts, contributions to credit unions and other non-banking financial institutions, funds and assets in precious metals lent by third parties, the total value of which does not exceed 150 minimal wages, are not subject to declaring.

The bill removes the provision that restricts the period for making the decision on the start of the operation of the electronic system on the submission and publication of declarations of persons empowered to fulfill functions in the state or in local self-government agencies by the National Agency for Corruption Prevention (NACP) as it is foreseen in the law on preventing corruption. The adoption of the bill would allow submitting and publishing declarations in the electronic form in 2016.

An Interfax-Ukraine corresponded has reported that according to the law on preventing corruption, the decision on the launch of the electronic declaration system is made by the NACP but no earlier than January 1, 2017.

At the same time, the head of the parliamentary committee on corruption prevention and counteraction, MP from the Samopomich faction Yehor Sobolev called the law "a step backwards in the anti-corruption legislation."

"Those who lied in the declarations will not be responsible before the law for at least another two years. And they got more opportunities to hide assets," he wrote on his Facebook page.

"Nobody saw the text of this fraud. MP from the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction Vadym Denysenko read it from the rostrum," Sobolev said, adding that currently a protest is being prepared regarding violation of the regulations when making these changes.