State Communication Service Refuses To Certify E-Declaration System

On Friday night, the State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection of Ukraine (SSCIP) refused to approve the system of collecting and processing of electronic income declarations of state officials. This was reported in an SSCIP statement on its Facebook page.

The SSCIP claimed the system was not ready and was not compatible with the terms of reference. "A lot of inconsistencies were identified in terms of the protection of information. The system did not confirm its capacity to provide security of its several announced functions, in particular with regard to identification and authentication of declarants through BankID services," the statement said.

"The software we reviewed was implemented partially. Thus, it does not provide for the reliable protection of information in the e-declaration system. The experts refused to issue a certification of conformity," it concluded.

This seemingly means that the system will not be launched on August 15, as planned and agreed with international partners. The start of e-declaration system is known to be a prerequisite for the IMF tranche and visa-free regime with the EU.

The SSCIP insists that it informed international partners on the expected problems in advance. "Current operability of the system is not in line with the e-declaration system objectives, as was told on August 9 to the representatives of state authorities concerned and to the EU, U.S., and UNDP," they said.

"We know that it is a high-profile case. Notwithstanding the false accusations against us, we still made the hard decision to refuse certification... But it is the only possible decision. After the software is fixed, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption can at any time request state expert assessment to analyze whether it conforms with the information protection guidelines," the SSCIP press office highlighted.

President Petro Poroshenko announced earlier that the obligatory electronic declaration of the property and funds of officials would be launched on August 15 as planned.

The EU officially stated that Ukraine was expected to launch e-declaration in its full capacity by August 15. The UN was also concerned with the delayed launch allegedly due to ‘security reasons.’

Source: European Pravda