Asset declarations are a strong, yet currently under-utilised instrument for preventing corruption and illicit financing among civil servants, and in particular among politically exposed persons. In the new IPF Note Vjekoslav Bratić, Martina Pezer and Branko Stanić analyse shortcomings in the asset declarations verification process and make recommendations for more effective checks aimed at increasing institutional accountability and strengthening the rule of law. The analysis covers Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, and key weaknesses in the card verification process are: limited number of obliged entities reporting the assets, lack of comprehensive and precise definition of gifts, difference between reported and actual value of property, the lack of staff for checking asset declarations, and the lack of definition and enforcement of penalties.

The 2021 analysis for Croatia highlighted several key shortcomings in the verification procedure of asset declarations. Asset declarations omit the identity of spouses and cohabitants of the officials, and there is a possibility that they do not notify their partners of the assets they own. Also, 12% of officials obliged to submit asset declarations did so after the prescribed deadline, i.e. following a repeated call, while the relatively small fines do not have an incentive effect on the officials to timely declare their assets. The Conflict of Interest Commission, as the competent authority, has the lowest number of employees in all countries under analysis. The Commission conducted a secondary/detailed audit on only 1.19% of submitted declarations. Asset declarations are removed from public registers one year after the relevant PEP’s term in office ends, thus accelerating the process of forgetting and preventing the investigative work of the media, civil society and other stakeholders.

Key recommendations for more efficient verifications of asset declarations in the analysed countries are: to make the verification procedure of asset declarations more coherent, i.e., strengthen detailed checks and comparisons with data from other registers, improve the legal basis in the field of asset declaration, interconnect different registers (natural and legal persons, assets, securities, etc.) and increase their transparency and digitisation, effectively enforce punishment and regularly use big data to early detect corruption risks.