The strategy of the war against corruption is not a true fight against the problem

Photo: rian.com.ua

The Cabinet of Ministers submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a bill on the anti-corruption strategy until 2017, which, according to Capital’s information, the MPs will propose to pass next week. However, neither the Cabinet nor the parliament is prepared to include in the document realistic laws in the nearest future.

Officials are threatened with fines

Unlike the previous anti-corruption strategies, this time the document will be approved by lawmakers, rather than by a presidential decree, as was the case in the past. Head of the Ukrainian branch of Transparency International Oleksiy Khmara said in a conversation with Capital that the decision to change the way in which the document is passed is associated with the Cabinet’s attempt to give it the status of a law, therefore, making it compulsory.

In the strategy, the Ministry of Justice, which drafted the bill, undertakes to develop a regulatory framework that will make civil servants provide maximum information about their property interests. So, it is proposed to grant public access to the registers of property rights, beneficiaries and owners of enterprises and data from the land registry. All declarations of officials and judges will be collected in a single electronic database, which will be monitored by a special body. At the same time, anyone that provides false information will be subject to a fine of UAH 2,550–5,100.

A new law regarding the civil service will stipulate an increase in wages that will equal those of similar jobs in the commercial sector. Changes will also be introduced in the judiciary system. Within the framework of the fight against corruption, the judiciary will be recertified and judicial immunity will be limited.

The bill proposes that activities of the prosecutor’s office will be limited only to criminal justice. By the way, such a regulation is envisaged in the presidential draft of amendments to the Constitution, in which the Prosecutor General Office would be deprived of the right of overseeing observance of human rights and freedoms. Such a duty is vested upon executive authorities and local self-government. The strategy prescribes drafting of legislation within the framework of protection from prosecution of informers on corrupt activities of officials. Verification of anonymous messages will be mandatory for the authorities. Moreover, a special hotline will be created for anonymous messages.

Another provision in the strategy pertains to the activities of political parties. It is planned that parties represented in the parliament will receive state funding. Donations and gratuities to the parties will be regulated and the maximum level of financial aid will be fixed. Campaign financing will be subject to independent audits and the parties themselves will be obligated to make public financial statements about their sponsors and expenditures. For the first time on the legislative level it was proposed to institutionalize lobbying, whereby political parties will be allowed to openly defend the interests of their sponsors provided that they submit full financial reports.

Simulation of a struggle

Former Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies Yuriy Ruban believes that the introduction of the strategy is long overdue. He says the document was expected from the Cabinet and was relevant this March, when the VR could have supported it. Lawyer Tetyana Montyan, who says open access to the registers of property rights and the land cadaster are the basis for fighting corruption, believes that even if the aforementioned strategy is adopted MPs will delay the process of it being supplemented with specific legislative provisions. “We filed a bill on the registers through a group of MPs, there were not enough votes even for its inclusion to the agenda, and as of today it has been removed,” said Montyan.

It should be noted that the strategy calls for the creation of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, which the government promised upon the demand of demonstrators on Maidan in February 2014. But today both the Cabinet and the parliament are turning a blind eye to the creation of such a bureau.

Chair of the VR Committee on the Fight against Organized Crime and Corruption Viktor Chumak (UDAR), who currently possesses the document, told Capital that the bill would be reviewed by the committee on July 23 and would go to vote the following day.