You're reading: Rada adopts bill on liability of military personnel

Ukraine’s parliament has adopted as a basis bill No. 1225 which defines the grounds and conditions for holding servicemen and police officers responsible for causing damage to military and other property during the performance of official duties.

The draft law on the liability of servicemen and some other persons was supported by 306 deputies in its first reading at a plenary meeting of the parliament on Sept. 20.

The basis for bringing to liability is damage caused by an unlawful decision, failure to perform or improper performance of official duties.

The conditions for bringing to liability are damages, the person’s wrongful behavior in connection with non-fulfillment or improper performance of official duties, carelessness of the person’s unlawful behavior and the damage caused and the official’s fault in causing damage.

Holding persons liable will not exempt them from disciplinary, administrative or criminal measures.

An official may be held liable within a year from the date of identification of the damage caused.

Liability for damage caused by negligence will be no more than five living wages. A person through whose fault a military unit, institution or organization is fined will incur material liability of up to 15 living wages. The commander who violated the procedure for accounting, storage, use of property or did not take measures to prevent theft, time of property will be liable for no more than 15 living wages.

In addition, the law provides for full and increased liability. The document lists the cases in which the official bears full financial responsibility in full for damage caused through their fault.

The draft law spells out the procedure for establishing the amount of damage caused, conducting an appropriate investigation and the procedure for recovery.

The transitional provisions of the draft law stipulate that the 1995 resolution of parliament on approving regulations for the liability of military personnel for damage to the state will lose force.