Kyiv, February 18, 2015. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine has to throw its secretiveness and corrupt practices to the dustbin of history and transform into an open and transparent law-enforcement agency that serves the Ukrainian people. The office should be stripped from unnecessary functions left from the Soviet period and focus on two main goals – to tackle corruption and organize a qualified supervision of criminal investigations. David Sakvarelidze, a recently appointed Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine, has announced this during the press-briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. “Ukrainians showed that they are ready to sacrifice their lives for freedom and the rule of law one year ago. The Prosecutor General Office requires anti-corruption reforms at the foremost,” Mr. Sakvarelidze said.
David Sakvarelidze is going to focus on the European integration reforming and the HR policy in the office. “There is a lot of talented young people both in the law-enforcement and the private sector who should be attracted to work as prosecutors,” Mr. Sakvarelidze said. He has announced that cutting the number of staff is going to be at the top of his agenda. He told that the Georgian government has cut the number of prosecutors from 1,850 to 350 as a result of reforms. Thus the salaries of those left increased dramatically, leading to the lower levels of corruption among the prosecutors. “My salary was just $20 when I joined the Prosecutor General’s Office of Georgia in 2002; however, we succeeded in raising it to $700 by 2012 after the series of comprehensive reforms,” Mr. Sakvarelidze explained.
David Sakvarelidze is also a candidate on the post of the Head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine. The Prosecutor General’s Office will have a new anti-corruption department as well. Mr. Sakvarelidze told that he is going to present a program of reforms in the office next Monday, February 23. “Ukrainian society deserves efficient law-enforcement agencies. I am ready to participate in creating such an open system,” he concluded.
