The West is forcing the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to declare a new war against corrupt officials

Photo: Ukrainian photo

The Cabinet of Ministers is expecting the adoption of two new anti-corruption bills at the extraordinary session of the Verkhovna Rada scheduled for October 7. The first bill envisages the creation of a separate state body that will track income declarations and the behavior of officials. The second bill is aimed at the government forcing all private companies to disclose their true owners.

A test of ethics

Yesterday, the Verkhovna Rada made public the agenda of an extraordinary session planned for next Tuesday. Two new bills on the fight against corruption drafted by the Cabinet of Ministers were included on the agenda. According to information that Capital possesses, the documents have not been reviewed by the specialized committee. MPs plan to review them this Monday.

Pursuant to the government bill On Prevention of Corruption another body of the executive power will be established in Ukraine. It will be named the National Commission on Fighting Corruption. It will be accountable to the VR and the Cabinet of Ministers. After passing through the tender selection the government will appoint 5 members that will elect their own manager. A review of income declarations of officials and monitoring of their lifestyle will be conveyed to the authority of the national commission.

The commission will also introduce a unified registry of declarations and monitor the observance of ethical rules of behavior on the part of officials. For this the commission will be allowed to use the services of special informants.

Noteworthy is that the document does not set the categories of civil servants that are subject to inspection. Instead, the notion of “an individual authorized to fulfill state functions” is being introduced. The National Commission will also have the power to appeal in a court of law normative documents that show signs of corruption.

The inspection of declarations will be conducted over 60 days after they are submitted by government officials. In order to determine the realistic financial status of the individual submitting the declaration the bill allows referral to information of the public and mass media publications. For violation or declaration of false information the punishment will be imprisonment for up to two years and for undeclared gratuities the fine will be 100-200 untaxed minimums (today this is equivalent to UAH 1,700-3,400) with confiscation. The fine for violation of the terms of submission of declarations will be 50-100 untaxed minimums or UAH 850-1,700.

By virtue of the second anti-corruption bill the Cabinet of Ministers decided to obligate all private companies to make public their owners in the state registry within six months after the adoption of the law. The Cabinet defined an individual that has influence on the management or activity of a company regardless of formal ownership of the company’s shares as the end beneficiary. “This will help us track the owners of those enterprises that participate in tenders,” people’s deputy Viktor Chumak (UDAR), who participated in drafting the anti-corruption bills, told Capital. He said the parliament will also try once more to adopt the bill on the Anti-corruption Bureau.

Requirements of the IMF

Former authorized government official on issues of anti-corruption policy Tatyana Chornovol believes the National Commission will execute preventative functions. She said at the moment this task has been assigned to the government envoy and the National Agency on Civil Service Issues. “All that is necessary is to offer employees high wages and a civil servant ID and then receive grants. For this reason, such bills are drafted in order that they are adopted by the Verkhovna Rada,” she told Capital.

Today, there are 400,000 civil servants and 600,000 law enforcers that could potentially be inspected by the National Commission. Executive Director of the Transparency International Ukraine Oleksiy Khmara says, first and foremost, high-standing officials and 10% of officials will be inspected according to the selective method. This will allow for the inspection of the entire state apparatus over the next 10 years.

Khmara explained to Capital that the bills of the Cabinet of Ministers are part of the reform package necessary to receive international financial aid. “Unfortunately, Ukraine is not fully trusted. All of our donors agreed to allocate money only in exchange for reform. Seeing as anti-corruption reform is one of the priorities, it remains under the watchful eye of donors,” says Khmara.
He added that the World Bank is tracking the process of making public income declarations of officials and issues of conflicts of interest, the International Monetary Fund is keeping a watchful eye on the creation of an anti-corruption bureau and the EU is monitoring the issue of property registries.

Chumak confirmed for Capital that the laws are being adopted to receive loans. “At the moment, the voting in the Verkhovna Rada cannot be predicted, but we will find the necessary number of votes as anti-corruption amendments is the main requirement of the IMF in order to issue the next tranche of the loan,” he says.