Deputy Head of the Kyiv Customs Department, Tetyana Volodymyrivna Ovdienko, declared significant cash gifts, the amounts of which are practically equal to her family's official annual income. This information is contained in her asset declaration, which was analyzed by anti-corruption media.
Ovdienko's main property is a 42.6 m² apartment in Boryspil (Kyiv region). She purchased this home on September 19, 2017 for UAH 200,000. Formally, Ovdienko is the owner, but her husband Oleksandr Serdyuk and son Yegor also have the right to reside there.
The declarant's husband owns three land plots in the village of Serhiivka, Pryluky district, Chernihiv region. All of them were purchased on February 20, 2023:
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two plots of land with an area of 5.65 hectares each (declared value - 155 thousand UAH each);
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one plot of land with an area of 1.4 hectares (38 thousand UAH).
In total, this amounts to more than 12 hectares of land. The document indicates that the land brings income through rent, but there is no detailed information about its actual use or yield. This is an important point, because such areas are often registered not for a "garden", but as an asset.
Of the movable property, the family declares only one car — a 2016 Toyota Camry. According to the declaration, the car was purchased on January 4, 2022 by the official's husband for UAH 170,000. This is the declared value of the transaction.
The total official income of the family for 2024 is 241 thousand UAH.
The main income is the husband's salary at the state-owned enterprise "Boryspil International Airport": 114 thousand UAH per year. In addition, he received 26 thousand UAH for renting out property (Agrikor Holding LLC) and another 16 thousand UAH of salary for part-time work at Agro-Kartel LLC.
And it is against this background that something arises that has attracted the attention of anti-corruption journalists: cash "gifts."
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Tetyana Ovdienko declared a gift of UAH 40,000 from her father, Volodymyr Borisovych Ovdienko.
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Her husband declared a gift of UAH 35,000 from his father, Ivan Mykhailovych Serdyuk.
In total, there are 75 thousand UAH of "gifts" from relatives. This money is almost a third of the total declared income of the family for the year and, it should be noted, exceeds the official's own personal income. It is this proportion that raises questions among anti-corruption activists: how economically realistic is it that parents give tens of thousands of hryvnias in cash in wartime, and whether this is not a way to legalize extraneous income.
Another nuance is liquid assets. The declaration indicates not only real estate and land, but also the presence of significant cash reserves in the family. This is important from the point of view of anti-corruption analysis, because against the background of modest declared income, maintaining housing, land over 12 hectares and a business-class car looks financially strained without additional sources. That is why journalists and anti-corruption initiatives talk about possible "hidden income" or the use of relatives as formal donors.
Tetyana Ovdienko is not a top national politician, but a customs official. But customs is one of the most corruption-sensitive branches of the state during the war: it controls the flow of goods, and the specifics of tax evasion, and smuggling. Any discrepancy between the lifestyle and income of such officials is of interest to both society and law enforcement.
Formally, gifts from parents can be declared and this is not prohibited. The problem begins when a “gift” becomes a tool to explain the origin of cash that does not seem commensurate with the official salary. Especially when it comes not only to cash, but also to tens of hectares of land and a business-class car purchased shortly before or during a full-scale war.
Against the backdrop of general pressure on corruption in the public sector and the trend towards auditing the assets of officials (including due to martial law and public demand for transparency), such declarations are becoming not just a formality, but a potential pretext for audits of family assets.
