The Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Conceals Information About Its Business Trips and Their Costs Under the Cover of War

The Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is hiding information about budget funds spent on official business trips from 2022 to 2025 by the Head of the Secretariat Vyacheslav Shtuchnyi, Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk and their deputies, heads of Verkhovna Rada committees, and heads of committee secretariats. Information about the class of transportation used during these official business trips, which were paid from the budget, is also not provided.

“We inform you that a document containing the information you requested has not been created and is not in the possession of the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and can only be obtained by summarizing and analytically processing a large amount of data… At the same time, we notify you that information regarding the planning and organization of events involving officials of the Verkhovna Rada, whose security is ensured according to the Law of Ukraine ‘On State Protection of State Authorities and Officials of Ukraine,’ as well as information about official business trips of Members of Parliament of Ukraine during the special period, are included in the List of Information Constituting Official Information in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and therefore cannot be provided according to paragraph 2 of part one of Article 22 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Access to Public Information,’” reads the response of the Secretariat to the “Holka” information request.

It is worth noting that before receiving a refusal from the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, “Holka” sent 3 letters that were not reviewed, citing general rules on how to submit requests to the Verkhovna Rada, although the organization had repeatedly sent such requests before and received responses.

Iryna Fedoriv, head of the public initiative “Holka,” emphasizes that hiding data about budget expenditures during the war is unacceptable:

Iryna Fedoriv

Head of the public initiative "Holka"

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It is very interesting for taxpayers to understand how information about where, for example, last year MPs or Secretariat employees have already traveled could threaten their security if these trips have already taken place. Why can’t we know how much this cost the budget and what class officials travel in during the war?

Olha Vdovenko, Director of Legal Affairs at the NGO “Human Rights Platform,” notes that the refusal from the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada does not comply with the requirements of the Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public Information”:

Olha Vdovenko

Director of Legal Affairs, NGO “Human Rights Platform

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Access to information on the spending of budget funds cannot be restricted, especially since the request concerned the business trips of officials of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. This is clearly such information. Access to such information can only be restricted by applying a ‘three-part test,’ which must be reflected in the refusal text, but this is absent. Regarding the claim that the administrator does not possess the requested information and that it can only be obtained by summarizing and analytically processing a large amount of data, in my opinion, this is an exaggeration because nowadays most document management systems are automated and allow the creation of the requested information without excessive effort. If the request concerns information contained in several documents and can be gathered and provided without significant intellectual effort (for example, without conducting additional content analysis), then such information meets the criteria of ‘reflectiveness and documentation’ and is public.

Additionally, holding a position related to the exercise of state functions entails not only guarantees for the protection of the rights of that person but also additional legal obligations. The public nature of both the authorities as subjects of power and their officials requires the disclosure of certain information to form public opinion regarding trust in the government and support for its authority in society. Such information, in particular, may be contained in orders regarding leave or business trips.

The public initiative “Holka” is preparing an appeal to the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights and, in the absence of a response from the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada, plans to appeal to the administrative court.

Recall that earlier the public initiative “Holka” wrote about how separate rules were created for the salaries of employees of the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. This trick could have cost the budget 400 million UAH during the war.