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Ukraine parliament, president approve latest anti-corruption measures

Ukraine parliament, president approve latest anti-corruption measures

15 October 2014

Ukraine’s parliament approved on Oct. 14 several legislative items at its final session before the Oct. 26 early parliamentary elections. They included increased penalties for election law violations and wider authority to investigate them, as well as the second reading of a bill to prevent and counteract money laundering, financing of terrorism and financing the distribution of weapons of mass destruction.

 

On the anti-corruption front, Ukraine’s parliament approved the second reading of a bill creating an Anti-Corruption Bureau, establishes its legal basis and determines its cooperation with other state bodies. Parliament also approved a law creating a National Commission to Prevent 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. The law also provides protection to individuals who report corruption.

 

President Petro Poroshenko signed on Oct. 14 a decree creating a National Council on Anti-Corruption Policy as a presidential advisory body. The Council will prepare proposals to determine and improve anti-corruption strategies, to implement a systemic analysis of the state of efforts to prevent and counteract corruption and the effective fulfillment of anti-corruption strategy and measures.

 

Zenon Zawada: Certainly, the emergence of anti-corruption legislation is a positive development. Yet a source of concern is last-minute amendments made to the legislation that allegedly weakens its independence. It has also been criticized for being too weak to begin with. Yet all of the world’s most sophisticated anti-corruption measures can be approved in Ukraine, and it will all be useless without the political will of the president and prime minister. So far, the will simply is not there, as we see it.

 

The creation of a National Council of Anti-Corruption Policy to advise the president is particularly amusing, given that Poroshenko and his entourage have already been alleged to have engaged in corrupt activities after only a few months in office, according to politicians, economists and other observers. Poroshenko has promised the political will shall emerge following the Oct. 26 early parliamentary elections, yet we don’t see any basis for that to happen, though we have to remain hopeful.

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