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State Border Guards Service failed to provide to journalist information about travels of the chair of Volynska oblast council

23.05.2017, 23:43

State Border Guards Service failed to provide to journalist information about travels of the chair of Volynska oblast council

12:21 19.05.2017  

Journalist from Lutsk Arina Krapka (Iryna Musiy) did not receive information in response to her request to the State Border Guards Service of Ukraine about international working trips of the chair of Volynska oblast council Ihor Palytsia. The journalist wrote about this on her Facebook page and confirmed to the IMI representative in Volynska oblast.

The journalist asked how many times and to what countries the chairman of Volynska oblast council Ihor Palytsia has been travelling in the time period from 2012 to 2017.

She emphasized that she requested this information because he is a governmental official, and he owns some property in other countries, which he never mentioned in his tax declarations starting from 2012.

The Border Guards Service responded that they do not have any legal basis for providing the requested  information. Also, they indicated that this information is classified and is related to private life of an individual, which means it is protected from improper publicity by the Constitution of Ukraine. Also, according to the Laws of Ukraine “On Information” and “On Protection of personal data”, such information can be made public only with the consent of the individual in question, or in other cases stipulated by the law.

“I am not interested, where Ihor Palytsia travels to resolve his personal issues. I am interested in his travels as an official in this period. Also, his travels not in an official capacity, but during his official working time”, Arina Krapka commented.

IMI media lawyer Maksym Ratushnyi states that it is allowed to request either Ihor Palytsia directly, or the State Border Guards Service information concerning public detached service/travels/border crossings (made for the purposes of his public functions), for which, for example, the governmental funds were used. However, the Border Guards do not have a right to give information about private travels of public servants, as such travels were not made as a part of public service.

In her comment for IMI, Arina Krapka said that she will send the request for information to the State Border Guards Service again, as she is interested in Ihor Palytsia’s working visits.

As IMI reported before, on May 10 Arina Krapka sued the charity fund of Ihor Palytsia "Tilky Razom" ("Only Together") in Volyn District Administrative Court due to its failure to respond to her information request.

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