The working group with the participation of foreign partners of Ukraine has prepared a draft of the new provision in the Criminal Code of Ukraine regarding responsibility for illegal enrichment of officials, the head of the working group, Verkhovna Rada deputy (the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction) Valeriy Karpuntsov has said.

"During five meetings, we found a consensus," he told the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

Karpuntsov said the new version on Article 368-5 of the Criminal Code must be coordinated with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) and the Constitutional Court.

"Bad situation – the NABU, the SAPO and the Constitutional Court did not attend the meetings. It's their job. They work with this norm. It's logical that their opinion was voiced and taken into account. Therefore, I propose ... this edition, signed by the chairman of the work group, on behalf of the committee to send to the NABU, the SAPO and the legal department of the Constitutional Court so that they give their reaction," the deputy said.

He said experts from the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, the International Monetary Fund and other institutions that participated in the work were satisfied with the final version of Article 368-5 of the Criminal Code on illicit enrichment.

Karpuntsov published a copy of the draft new version of Article 368-5 of the Criminal Code on his Facebook page and appealed to head of the parliament's law enforcement committee Andriy Kozhemiakin with suggestions for further steps.

According to the article on illegal enrichment prepared by the working group, illegal enrichment will be punished with imprisonment for up to three years with the deprivation of the right to occupy certain positions or engage in certain posts for the same term.

Illegal enrichment will be the receipt by an entity authorized to perform the functions of the state or local government, including indirectly, of assets, as well as the reduction of financial obligations in the amount exceeding the lawfully received income by more than 1,000 non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens.

If the amount of assets received exceeds the legally received incomes of a person in a responsible position by more than 7,000 non-taxable minimum incomes, this will be considered an illegal enrichment on a large scale. Responsibility includes imprisonment from three to six years.

For the unlawful enrichment of a person in a particularly responsible position on a particularly large scale, they propose to deprive of liberty for a term of six to eight years. To do this, the difference between the assets received and a legitimate income must exceed 15,000 non-taxable minimums.

Karpuntsov said 103 people from 29 institutions, organizations and institutions participated in the work on the article on illegal enrichment.

At the same time, he noted that it is also necessary to prepare and adopt amendments to the Criminal and Criminal Procedural Codes related to this article in parliament, in particular, to determine the jurisdiction of such proceedings.

As reported, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, on the basis of the constitutional representation of 59 people's deputies of Ukraine, declared unconstitutional Article 368-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine on illegal enrichment, since its provisions do not comply with the principles of the rule of law and the presumption of innocence.

This decision caused concern of the IMF, the U.S. and British embassies.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a bill that was supposed to restore this article in a different edition. In turn, deputies filed more than ten alternative initiatives.

At the end of March 2019, a working group was set up on the basis of the parliamentary committee on legislative support for law enforcement, which was to prepare an agreed version of the article on illegal enrichment. Karpuntsov headed the group.