Ukraine gov’t takes numerous anti-corruption measures

Ukraine’s parliament will review next week anti-corruption legislation that targets state tenders, Vice Speaker Andriy Parubiy reported on Sept. 14 on his blog at pravda.com.ua. Such legislation was drafted by the parliamentary committee to prevent and counteract corruption, as well as civic activists and experts. “Experts affirm that Ukraine’s budget, as a result of introducing transparent and more effective state purchases, can save UAH 50 bln every year,” Parubiy wrote. “The given legislation is oriented towards this. One of its key anti-corruption conditions is the requirement to disclose the final owners of company participants in state purchases.”

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called on Ukraine’s parliament on Sept. 14 to approve legislation this week that would eliminate, or significantly raise, bail for accused corrupt officials. “I categorically would want to prevent the public’s disappointment of judges again releasing them on their own recognizance or on bail, and we will look for them all over the world afterwards,” he said.

The same day, a Kyiv court arrested Yaroslav Kashuba, the head of the State Employment Service, and placed him under UAH 1.8 mln bail, the Procurator General of Ukraine reported. He and two assistants are charged with bribery and stealing funds.

Borys Tymonkin, the former board chairman of Brokbiznesbank that was controlled by Yanukovych insider Serhiy Kurchenko, said state investigators offered him bribes to drop criminal charges against him, as reported by the epravda.com.ua news site. The offers started at USD 0.5 mln in March 2013, then rose to USD 1.5 mln in 2014 and USD 2.0 mln in 2015. Tymonkin was arrested in June in Berlin and charged with misappropriation of UAH 2 bln from the State Agrarian Fund.

Zenon Zawada: The legislation to combat corruption has taken a long time to surface from the pipeline, but is welcome regardless. The mentioned items address key loopholes that Ukrainian officials have taken advantage of, even after the EuroMaidan protest.

As for the arrests, the prosecution of alleged corrupt officials continues to be uneven and sloppy, if not incompetent in some cases. Meanwhile, Tymonkin’s accusation of bribery against state investigators is entirely possible, though unconfirmed.

The government needs to organize clear and simple guidelines of an organized, sophisticated campaign to prosecute of high-profile criminal suspects. Otherwise, it will continue to be accused of political persecution and it will continue to lose what little credibility it has left among the public.