Ukraine govt begins dismissing employees in lustration campaign

As part of a government lustration effort, the Cabinet of Ministers has already dismissed 39 employees, including first deputy and deputy ministers and the heads of state national agencies, said on Oct. 16 Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, as reported by the LigaBiznesInform news agency. 20 of them submitted resignations. Reviews of top state officials will begin in November, he said. The Justice Ministry will conduct a second round of reviews. The lustration of the Ukrainian government will continue through 2016 and each ministry will have a commission that reviews the biographies and assets of each state employee and candidates for positions.

 

The Presidential Administration plans to dismiss seven employees, as well as 10 heads and members of national commissions, in accordance with the lustration law, reported on Oct. 16 the press service of the Presidential Administration. The Administration began its lustration process before the law’s approval and has renewed its personnel by more than half, the press service said. Lustration must occur in all state structures and institutions, the press service said.

 

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine appealed on Oct. 16 to President Petro Poroshenko to dismiss his recently appointed head of the Kirovohrad state oblast administration, Serhiy Kuzmenko, as part of the lustration campaign. Kuzmenko served as the deputy head of the state oblast administration under the administration of former President Viktor Yanukovych. As an MP from the Party of Regions, he supported the vote to establish a dictatorship in January.

 

The Kharkiv State Oblast Administration doesn’t have any employees that fall under the lustration campaign, said on Oct. 16 its head Ihor Baluta. Only his deputy fell under its guidelines and he already submitted his resignation, he said.

 

Several dozen high-ranking police officers will be dismissed as a part of the lustration campaign, said on Oct. 16 Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. The ministry will eliminate its transportation police as well as its organized crime administration, which he described as “a repressive body,” and will shift its positive functions to other bodies. The ministry will also restrict its traffic police to roads that link population centers, merging its functions within urban areas with the police patrol. The ministry has also announced reviews of officers suspected in persecuting citizens during the EuroMaidan, he said.

 

Zenon Zawada: It’s positive to see the Cabinet of Ministers and the Presidential Administration taking the initiative in the lustration campaign. However, the evidence so far indicates a disturbing trend in which the politically connected will avoid any lustration. As one example, among the deputy heads of the Presidential Administration is Oleh Rafalskiy, who served in the same post under Yanukovych.  It’s particularly disturbing to see the Poroshenko Bloc and Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front fielding about dozen candidates for the Oct. 26 elections that clearly don’t meet lustration criteria.

 

Further evidence that the lustration campaign is politicized is Baluta’s announcement that no one is his body will be dismissed. Though some dismissals occurred immediately following the EuroMaidan, government bodies in southeastern Ukrainian regions are still packed with those who served the Yanukovych administration and persecuted the opposition. Conducting lustration in these bodies would undermine trust in the new government, which would stand to be accused of pursuing its own form of persecution in revenge.

 

We expect the lustration process will be performed in a way that inflicts minimal political damage to the highest ranking politicians, who themselves have shown their reluctance to do it at their own expense (particularly within their own political parties). The lustration campaign can’t be too aggressive, because it will reveal their hypocrisy. The burden of ensuring that it’s effective will rest on civic activists, whose resources are limited as well.

 

Lustration is convenient to do now because there’s an election campaign. But beyond these demonstrative announcements and after the elections, we expect it will fall short of the standards that would qualify it as a wholesale reform. On the bright side, it’s the first time it has happened in Ukraine so it’s a step in the right direction, nonetheless.