While ordinary Ukrainians receive a standard set for the holidays — socks, perfume, or a cup with the inscription “best dad,” in the world of bureaucratic declarations, “gift” sounds completely different. Here, a box of sweets is worth several million hryvnias in cash. And, interestingly, this no longer even causes public surprise.
According to the NACP, in 2024 alone, officials declared UAH 4.39 billion in gifts. This is not a quibble: it is almost the same as the annual budget of the regional center. And what is interesting is that it is growing steadily.
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2021 — UAH 3.48 billion
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2022 — UAH 3.92 billion
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2023 — UAH 3.52 billion
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2024 — already 4.39 billion UAH
The trend is more than eloquent: the “gift industry” under the government works no worse than offshore companies.
Formally, everything is legal. If the value of the gift exceeds 5 subsistence minimums (approximately 15 thousand UAH), it must be declared. But the nuance is that the source does not have to be explained in detail. So entries like "help from mother" appear in the declarations - and this is for several million hryvnias.
Other formulations also occur:
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“one-time financial support”,
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“wedding contributions” in an amount that would be enough for several weddings and an apartment in Kyiv,
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“a gift from a relative” who officially lives on minimum wage.
As a result, a mid-level official with a salary of 20 thousand hryvnias quite legally indicates a gift of 2–3 million in his declaration. Neither the NACP nor the prosecutor's office sees this as a direct violation - after all, the law allows it. And while the authorities "catch" small cases of undeclared amounts, billions continue to "settle" in the "gift of fate" column.
In fact, society sees another absurdity:
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there is money in the declarations,
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their sources of origin are questionable,
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but everything is formally within the limits of the law.
The problem is that such “legal generosity” of officials turns the declaration system into a farce. And instead of transparency, we have another mechanism for legalizing wealth of unknown origin.
