For two months now, the authorities have been thinking about how to return fugitive officials from abroad.

MPs planned to reward them with 10 years in prison if they did not return. There are doubts about the effectiveness of this method - who will return if they know that they will face 10 years in prison? As a result, the idea has been abandoned for now.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine is trying to bring back the officials on its own - recently it was decided that anyone who does not return to the territory of Ukraine and to their workplace (unless they are allowed to work remotely) by 25 April may be fired.

MPs are looking for additional motivation through the new draft law 7260. The main goal of the 15 authors of the draft law is to cover the transport needs of the military of the Armed Forces, the National Guard and other defenders of the country, primarily at the expense of the cars of the highest ranking officials . We are talking about people's deputies, ministers and their deputies, civil servants of category A or B, judges, prosecutors, etc.

Why do this? There are several reasons. The first is that volunteers will not have to spend money on importing cars from Europe if they can simply take the cars of the officials who have fled. Secondly, the authors hope that this draft law will help to raise the level of consciousness of officials towards the state and the Ukrainian people. Perhaps officials will think about whether to leave their homeland if their vehicles are sent to the Armed Forces.

It should be understood that under the current Article 6 of the Law, military transport duty is imposed on all citizens who own vehicles. However, the authors of the draft law propose that vehicles should be confiscated mainly from high-ranking government officials who have left the country.

To be fair, the priority seizure will not apply to:

- persons who have been sent outside the territory of Ukraine to perform official tasks;

- women raising a child under the age of 18;

- men who are raising a child (children) under the age of 18 on their own;

- persons recognised as persons with disabilities;

- persons who are raising or caring for other categories of people identified in the project.

It should be understood that this is not a case of confiscation or any other gratuitous and irrevocable seizure. This procedure provides for the mandatory return of the seized car or compensation for its value or damage.

It is also worth noting that vehicles are not engaged by anyone, but by territorial recruitment and social support centres, the Central Department or regional bodies of the Security Service of Ukraine, the relevant unit of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine on the basis of decisions of local state administrations, which are formalised by relevant orders. These decisions are made on the basis of decisions of local state administrations, which are issued by relevant orders.

The vehicles will be returned after demobilisation is announced on the basis of acceptance certificates, which contain information about the owners, technical condition and residual (book) value. Cars will be returned to owners within 30 days from the date of demobilisation.

What could be the problem?

Before passing any bill, we must ask ourselves why we are doing this and what problem we are solving. If our goal is to return fugitive officials, it is likely that such changes will not help us much. Why?

Firstly, the aforementioned decision of the Cabinet of Ministers on the possibility of dismissal in case of failure to return deprives such persons of the status of an official. Therefore, their cars will no longer be under the threat of priority seizure. A good illustration is the armoured car of MP Ilya Kiva worth UAH 5 million, which could be more useful at the frontline. But since he is no longer an MP, this priority seizure will not apply to him either. To reassure you, unlike officials who will get off with a simple dismissal, Ilya Kiva can be deprived of all his property for collaboration.

Secondly, such confiscation is not the worst option for the fugitives' cars, as their value must be compensated. Therefore, this prospect, instead of being stolen or destroyed by a shell, will encourage officials rather than upset them.

Therefore, although the desire of parliamentarians to return officials to their jobs is more than understandable, systemic solutions should be sought to help make the civil service strong and effective during the war, and possibly without fugitive officials.

Source: Liga.net