Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergii Marchenko held a working meeting with the USAID Ukraine Mission Director James Hope.

The meeting was also attended by First Deputy Minister of Finance Denys Uliutin and Deputy Minister of Finance of Ukraine for Digital Development, Digital Transformations and Digitalization Oleksandr Hrubiian.

The main topic of discussion was the implementation of the IT consolidation of information resources of the public finance management system, which is envisaged in the National Revenue Strategy until 2030.

During the meeting, the Minister of Finance thanked USAID for the comprehensive support provided to Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion and emphasized that the reform of the tax and customs spheres is one of the priorities in the implementation of measures jointly determined with international partners.

“The planned reform of the tax and customs authorities is aimed at digitalization, improving tax and customs administration, introducing a tax risk management system, and implementing anti-corruption measures. The ultimate goal is to create a reliable, transparent and customer-oriented system in these areas, which can ensure the trust of citizens and businesses in government institutions,” said Sergii Marchenko.

Today, each of PFMS subjects (State Tax, Customs, Audit, Treasury and Financial Monitoring Services) has its own IT infrastructures, which require constant support and updating.

This leads to the consolidation at the level of these bodies of functions for the implementation of state policy and the possibility of direct management (access) of data stored in their databases, which, in particular, leads to a decrease in public trust in the institutions.

Deputy Minister of Finance Oleksandr Hrubiian said that one of the key steps to restore trust in the institutions of the public finance management system is the IT consolidation of information resources of PFMS subjects at the level of the Ministry of Finance with the administration of these resources by an independent administrator.

To date, in cooperation with the Public Finance Management Support Programme for Ukraine (EU4PFM), steps have already been partially implemented for the purchase of software for deployment of the PFMS private cloud, which is the core of the IT consolidation of information resources.

In the future, in cooperation with the EU4PFM, it is planned to take steps to conduct a detailed analysis of the existing hardware capacities of PFMS entities in 2024, which will further allow the construction of a private cloud of the public finance management system.

Additional information

In December 2023, the Government of Ukraine approved the National Revenue Strategy until 2030. The main goal of the Strategy covers important areas, including strengthening Ukraine’s fiscal capacity, adapting tax and customs legislation to EU standards, and creating incentives for post-war recovery and economic growth.