Ukraine did not meet anticorruption commitments to IMF, NABU head says

Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU)
Artem Sytnyk believes that Ukraine failed to meet number of its commitments to
the IMF in the judicial and anticorruption areas. In an interview with
censor.net published Feb. 24, Sytnyk listed four outstanding issues in these
areas with the IMF.

First, the right of the NABU to wiretap independently
(Ukraine adopted a respective law, but technically the NABU’s right is yet to
be implemented). Second, the independence of anticorruption bodies. The problems
mentioned by Sytnyk are uncertainty about the appointment and dismissal of the
NABU director and failure to appoint a top anticorruption prosecutor after the
previous one resigned in August 2020. Third, the
need to reload the High Council of Justice, a supervisory body for courts,
whose members’ reputation disturbs the Venice Commission, according to Sytnyk.
Fourth, a transfer of court reviews of all central state bodies’ decisions to
the Supreme Court as a court of first instance (now such cases are in the
jurisdiction the scandalous Kyiv District Administrative Court).

Alexander Paraschiy: Among the
four mentioned issues, only one belongs to the structural benchmarks listed in
the latest memorandum with the IMF in June 2020 (enhancing selection of the
High Council of Justice, whose members should have “impeccable reputation and
integrity”). Another one, the NABU’s right to wiretap independently, was a
structural benchmark under the April 2017 memorandum with the IMF on the
2015-2019 EFF program (Ukraine did not pass a next review under that program).
And one more, the exclusive power of the Supreme Court to review acts of
central state bodies, has never been a structural benchmark, but was among
Ukraine’s intentions listed in the latest memorandum with the IMF.

Even though the IMF does not officially require
Ukraine to implement all the tasks listed by Sytnyk, it looks like all of them
are important for the fund, which states that independence and integrity of
anticorruption bodies is “a prerequisite under the current IMF-supported
program.” That means Ukraine is unlikely to reach a new
agreement with the IMF unless it addresses the above listed issues. Thus far,
we remain optimistic about Ukraine’s chances to agree with the fund by the end
of 1H21.