This is a well-known scheme when a progressive normative legal act promising positive changes is approved and advertised widely and then modified – without advertisements – by amendments and interpretations so that one hardly can recognize it.

Dicslosure of information on officials’ incomes and properties is quite usual for most countries where FOI acts work for years, decades or centuries. Russian officials of course did not rejoice being obliged to publish their income declarations for open access. And they manage to “solve” this “problem”.

People smiled when officials appeared to be almost poor while their wives could compete for top positions in any rating of the richest women over the world. But now, a draft order is placed at the website of the Ministry of finances that, if approved, allows officials not to disclose their spouses’ or children’s incomes having just written an application referring to some “objective reasons”.

Anna Lapteva, IIFD lawyer:

“First of all, the term “objective reasons is introduced by the Presidential Decree No. 559 from May 18, 2009. Its Clause 9 provides that any case when incomes of the spouse or of under-age children of an official are not declared due to “objective reasons” should be investigated by a special commission. Developers of the draft Order of the Ministry of Financers stress “objective reasons” and do not even mention special commission of investigation. Moreover, not defined by the legislation, the “objective reasons” wording provides many possibilities for law abuse and corruption. Who should estimate how objective is one or another reason referred to?

Second, mere refusal of an official’s spouse or child to declare their incomes is proposed to be an “objective reason”. One hardly can doubt what wide space for corruption is opened by this”.

The draft Order of the Ministry of Finances is available in Russian on the Russian page.