Declarations of Integrity and the Disciplinary Committee: what other changes are expected at customs
4 April 08:49
The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine has developed regulations that should reduce corruption risks in the reformed State Customs Service and the adoption of which is stipulated by the Memorandum of Cooperation between Ukraine and the IMF. This was reported by the Government portal, according to
One of these government decisions was already adopted on April 1, 2025. It concerns the approval of the Procedure for conducting a psychophysiological survey of customs officials and candidates for civil service positions in the customs authorities using a polygraph. Among other things, it should promote objectivity in making personnel decisions and the formation of high-quality customs personnel.
Customs employees will be tested for integrity
The procedure for conducting integrity checks and monitoring the lifestyle of customs officials provides for
– introduction of an integrity declaration to be filled in annually by all customs officials;
– verification of the available information to establish facts that may indicate dishonest behavior of customs officers, the accuracy of the information specified in the integrity declaration, ethical, moral and business qualities;
– establishing the compliance of the information specified in the integrity declaration with the facts that may become known from individuals and/or legal entities, media, social networks, etc., which contains information on the possible discrepancy between the standard of living of the customs official and his/her declared property and income.
In addition, a Disciplinary Committee will soon be established at the customs.
It will involve international experts and representatives of the business ombudsman. They will help the customs authorities organize integrity checks of officials and lifestyle monitoring.
A rotation procedure for customs officials will also be developed, which will allow them to periodically change their stationary workplace within the same or different customs offices.
How business currently assesses the work of customs
The number of surveyed entrepreneurs who indicated that the work of customs is generally effective but requires some changes increased from 62.4% in 2023 to 66.5% in 2024. At the same time, those who have complaints about the work of customs and believe that customs is inefficient, but large-scale reforms can improve the situation, amounted to 19.9% in 2024. These are the findings of the annual survey of Ukrainian exporters and importers conducted by the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting.
Queues at the border remain on the 1st place in the list of problems in the work of customs according to the surveyed exporters and importers. Although the importance of this problem has decreased compared to 2023 – from 67.7% to 48.8%. Insufficient transparency of customs authorities has become the second most important problem (43.8%), having risen from 4th place in 2023 (36.4%). The third place was taken by “imperfect customs legislation” – 37.6% of respondents mentioned it.
The problem of corruption at customs dropped to fourth place in this rating: 30.3% in 2024 compared to 38.4% in 2023, gradually returning to the pre-war level of 24.7% in 2021.
Expectations from customs reform for business representatives are primarily related to hopes for a reduction in the time of customs procedures – 57.5% of respondents expect this. Slightly more than 51.5% of respondents were in favor of reducing financial costs for businesses when going through these procedures.
Automation of procedures and minimization of the human factor are welcomed by 35.1% of respondents, 31.1% would like to see improved technical equipment, and 29% would like to see a reduction in corruption.
How customs will be reformed
In June 2024, the International Monetary Fund included the requirement to reboot the customs service as a structural benchmark, which is one of the conditions for continuing further cooperation with Ukraine.
In September last year, the Verkhovna Rada approved the draft law No. 6490-d on the reboot of the customs service. In December 2024, the government formed an interagency working group to reform the system of bodies implementing customs policy. Ihor Smelyansky, CEO of Ukrposhta, was appointed as the head of the group.
The new law changes the procedure for competitive selection of the head of the State Customs Service. The Chief Customs Officer will be selected by a six-member competition commission. Three of them will be appointed by the Ministry of Finance, the other three will be qualified representatives of international organizations. The right to cast a decisive vote, similar to the procedures for selecting the heads of NABU, NAPC, SAPO and BES, will be granted to international experts.
The newly elected head of the Customs will have broader personnel powers. In particular, he will be able to appoint his deputies without a mandatory competition, and will have the right to appoint heads of regional customs offices and their deputies independently, without the approval of anyone else. A polygraph test will now be one of the stages in the selection of candidates for customs positions.
The Customs reform provides for an independent audit procedure to be conducted by a commission of three international experts after 1 and 3 years of the Head of the State Customs Service’s tenure. It also provides for the certification of all customs officers.
