When Legislation Works for Business: Where Is the Line Between Regulation and Shadow Lobbying?
The Ukrainian National Lobbyists Association has appealed to the officials responsible for preventing and detecting corruption within public authorities and to the National Agency for Corruption Prevention regarding the need to strengthen the assessment of corruption risks when adopting laws, regulations, and administrative acts (open letter attached).
This refers to situations where a decision by a public authority imposes an obligation on citizens, businesses, or other parties to legal relationships to use a specific resource, platform, or service owned or controlled by a particular commercial entity.
UNLA emphasizes that such acts must be assessed not only from the perspective of formal legality, but also in light of their actual consequences. If an act provides a specific private entity with a guaranteed flow of users, revenue, data, a market advantage, or an administratively secured position, this may indicate the presence of a corruption risk.
Particular attention should be paid to the connection between the content of the adopted act and the information in the Transparency Register. If the act objectively serves the interests of a specific commercial organization, but the Registry lacks information on lobbying, lobbying reports, or details about the client, the lobbying entity, or the beneficiary of the influence, such a situation requires additional anti-corruption scrutiny.
The absence of information in the Transparency Register does not in itself constitute evidence of corruption. At the same time, when combined with the existence of an act that creates an obvious benefit for a specific organization, it may be an indicator of possible hidden influence, shadow lobbying, a conflict of interest, or the granting of an unjustified administrative advantage.
UNLA believes it is appropriate to pay closer attention to the origins of regulatory initiatives, the group of individuals involved in drafting the regulations, the analysis of alternative solutions, the impact on competition, the identification of the ultimate beneficiaries of the relevant resources, as well as potential signs of conflicts of interest.
This approach will help prevent behind-the-scenes lobbying, increase the transparency of the public decision-making process, and strengthen public trust in government agencies.
The Ukrainian National Lobbyists Association emphasizes that transparency in influencing public decisions, proper regulation of lobbying activities, and the prevention of unjustified advantages for individual business entities are important components of anti-corruption policy, good governance, and Ukraine’s European integration.
