“Unprecedented shift in Government’s dialogue with business.” Magonova & Partners implemented Office of Efficient Interaction with Business to the structure of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine

21st of December, 2020 Vadym Melnyk was appointed as the Head of the State Fiscal Service. Throughout the first months of his service, Mr.Melnyk has defined its priority in creating a new vision for the Economic Security of Ukraine  by establishing the open dialogue platform with the business, defeating shadow markets and VAT scrolls schemes.

State Fiscal Service, most widely known as a Tax Police, is historically known for the contraversive relationships with the business and society which led to absence of transparency, dialogue and partnership.

The key request to M&P was to create a roadmap to reform the core of the relationships of the SFS with the partners and start a structural relationship with the local and international business in Ukraine.  The key goal was to design the tools for the sustainable and long-term development of such relationships.

M&P has developed a full-functioning platform - Office of the Efficient Interaction with Business which was officially launched on April 20th 2021. The key focus of the platform is uniting the majority of the local and international businesses and associations to combat shadow markets. Overall, by the day of the launch, 22 associations have joined the communication line with Office.

The Office is structured to proceed with the 3 core functions to ensure the economic security of Ukraine:

- Streamline communication. Direct and public dialogue  between SFS and business followed by a particular action plan and mutual feedback. 

- Exchange of analytics. For the first time in existence of the Tax police in Ukraine the representatives of the more than 30 industries share most updated analytics on shadow markets, overall market conditions and
- Creating mutual working groups on legislative initiatives to close the legal loopholes that prospered shadow markets in Ukraine

The most practical use of the Office comes with the fact that it is fully integrated in the structure of the SFS, yet it is designed to streamline the communication without unnecessary bureaucracy. After the processes audit at SFS, M&P managed to create a standalone yet critical operational unit of the SFS that minimizes the chance of informational distortion and corruption risks. The vision is that business and government become the partners in combating shadow markets. 

 

At the introductory meetings between business and Head of SFS, business representatives already stated that Office of the Efficient Interaction with business is “unprecedentedly the most useful and practical shift in government’s dialogue with the business in the past years”