Ukraine parliament approves anti-embezzlement, illicit enrichment bills

Ukraine’s parliament approved on Nov. 1 a bill on the
prevention and counteraction of legalizing (embezzling) revenue gained by
criminal means, financing terrorism and financing the distribution of weapons
of mass destruction. Finance Minister Oksana Markarova told the session that
the bill is important for securing Western macro-financing and
Euro-integration. Among its measures are raising the threshold for financial
monitoring to UAH 400K (from UAH 150K) and raising the penalty for violations.
The bill drew 278 votes in favor compared with 225 votes needed.

Ukraine’s parliament approved on Oct. 31 a bill that
returns to the criminal code a statute to punish illicit enrichment. The law
was originally approved by parliament in 2015 before it was overturned by a
controversial Constitutional Court ruling in February this year. The current
draft calls for criminal charges to be filed if the value of a state official’s
assets exceeds their official income by at least UAH 6.5 mln, said MP Anastasia
Krasnosilska, the head of the parliamentary anti-corruption committee, adding
that this measure is aimed at bigger corruption cases.

The current bill also calls for confiscating property
if a state official’s questionable revenues are worth more than their legal
revenues, starting at UAH 1 mln, which applies to smaller cases, she said, as
reported by pravda.com.ua. “These instruments – civil confiscation and criminal
responsibility – will be available only to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau,
the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and the National Agency on
Preventing Corruption,” Krasnosilska said.

Other anti-corruption legislation approved by
parliament in October include a bill on ensuring the effectiveness of the
institutional mechanism of preventing corruption, said on Nov. 4 Halyna
Yanchenko, a People’s Servant MP and deputy head of the anti-corruption
committee. “Ukrainian society awaited this decision for two and a half years,
but the previous government lacked the political will. The law enabled finally
starting the process of resetting the National Agency on Preventing Corruption,
which has demonstrated recently its ineffectiveness, unprofessionalism and
inability to fulfill its functions,” she said in a column published on the pravda.com.ua
news site.

Other October bills include the law on protecting and
encouraging revealers of corruption and a bill that sets criminal penalties for
MPs voting on behalf of other MPs, Yanchenko said.

Zenon Zawada: The People’s
Servant parliamentary faction deserves credit for approving these
anti-corruption measures (assuming they will be signed by the president). But
nice laws on the books will be hollow if judges don’t apply the rule of law
impartially and prosecutors don’t seek to prosecute and convict corrupt
officials at all levels, particularly in the highest echelons. So far, the
political will for a wholescale corruption battle is lacking.

More confirmation of that was a television
interview this weekend with the recently dismissed EuroMaidan prosecutor,
Serhiy Horbatiuk, who alleged that President’s Office Head Andriy Bohdan has
tried to stop investigations into crimes related to the Yanukovych
administration and the EuroMaidan protest.