8 October 2014
Ukraine’s parliament approved on Oct. 7 the first reading of a bill submitted by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko creating an Anti-Corruption Bureau as part of the government’s anti-corruption strategy. The legislation was drafted by the Justice Ministry and experts of the Reform Package Resuscitation non-government organization, before it was approved by the Cabinet and revised in the Presidential Administration, reported the Ukrayinska Pravda news site. It will be adjusted for the vote on a second reading. The Bureau will be charged with investigating crimes committed by high-ranking state and military officials, MPs, ministers, judges, prosecutors and directors of state enterprises. The law’s approval by the end of October is one of the key IMF demands for issuing another loan tranche.
Parliament also approved on Oct. 7 a bill creating a National Commission on Preventing Corruption and granting it instruments such as examinations, reviews, a single state register of those convicted of corruption, and transparency requirements. In particular, the commission will review the income declaration of officials and whether their lifestyles correspond. Parliament approved two more anti-corruption bills, the first on determining the beneficiaries of legal entities and public figures. The other measure to combat money laundering and financial terrorism adapted the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering. These legislative items will also be reviewed for a second reading on Oct. 14, the Ukrayinska Pravda news site reported.
Zenon Zawada: Certainly, such anti-corruption measures are unprecedented for Ukraine and are positive. But as the Ukrainian proverb goes, “The fish rots from the head.” No corruption effort will succeed without the president and his entourage demonstrating honesty, more or less. Yet the Poroshenko Bloc electoral list for the early Oct. 26 vote is loaded with politicians with allegedly corrupt histories, as determined by journalists and non-government organizations. And Poroshenko’s own nepotism has led to numerous appointments of corrupt top-ranking officials, as alleged by these sources. Even Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko, who led the bill’s drafting, stands accused by investigative journalists of hatching a corrupt tender just this spring.
The political nepotism and clan structures pervading Ukrainian government can easily serve to undermine any of the investigations and criminal cases that emerge from the anti-corruption structures being created. It’s entirely possible they will exist on a de jure basis, for international structures such as the IMF, but will have little de facto authority to address illegal activities. So we see no reason to get excited about the legislation until it’s demonstrated that the highest ranking officials will abide by current laws, and new laws that emerge.