Anti-corruption reform to move Ukraine closer to European standards
Lawmakers have approved the anti-corruption package presented by the Cabinet of Ministers and President Petro Poroshenko in what experts term the most important legislation since Ukraine achieved independence.
“The whole package submitted by the president and the government was developed by international experts. The main things Ukraine expects from this package are fair and transparent state authority, fair prosecutors and judges. And in order to make them fair, they should be all brought to light,” Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said while introducing the bill to the parliament.
The new strategy calls for reform of the prosecutor’s office and establishment of an anti-corruption bureau, which will investigate cases brought against senior officials, judges and heads of departments of the law enforcement system. The bureau’s staff will have about 700 well-paid professionals.
New laws will also provide transparency in funding of political parties. One of the most important innovations is the law on defining ultimate beneficiaries of legal persons and public figures, officials said.
“The offshore era is over in Ukraine,” Yatsenyuk told the parliament. “Now every official will be plainly visible. All accounts, all properties of the company will be disclosed, and those who illegally own them will be brought to justice.” Experts said there were attempts to adopt similar laws before, but only the new government succeeded.
“The law about the anti-corruption bureau is much awaited. It is being created as a law enforcement agency. But it has more power to fight political corruption,” Mykola Havronyuk, director of Scientific Development Centre for Political and Legal Reforms, told SETimes.
“In our country, you could always pay money and resolve any issue before the court or the police. But now no one can do that because we are making major changes in the criminal code,” he said.
Olexandr Solontay, an analyst for the Kyiv-based Institute of Political Education, said the new measures are not perfect, but the most important is that they contain the “spirit of the law” and he believes the new parliament will be able to improve them.
“These laws have very correct and useful ideas,” Solontay told SETimes. “For example, information on real estate and companies must be open. Every citizen has the right to receive it. In our country, always a lot of money from the state budget is laundered by companies owned by the officials. Now we will be able to monitor such facts.”
In addition to the anti-corruption reforms, the parliament also adopted a law that focuses the role and authority of the prosecutor’s office.
“The adoption of the new law on the prosecutor’s office is our unfulfilled obligation to the Council of Europe, which we were supposed to meet a long time ago,” Kateryna Tarasova, head of the NGO Ukrainian Judicial Association-Foundation for Justice, told SETimes.
“Prosecutors in our country are like gods. They can open a case, can close it, do whatever they want. According to the old laws, their powers are limitless. And we could not appeal some illegal actions of the prosecutors,” she said. Experts said Ukrainians will see results of the reforms soon.
“I think we will see the first result by the end of 2015,” Havronyuk said.
What results are you expecting from the anti-corruption reform in Ukraine? Share your thoughts in the comments section.