Anti Corruption Action Center presented an online tool in English that allows monitoring how Ukraine implements its anticorruption commitments towards its international partners. The web site contains the list of the main anticorruption requirements and documents in which these commitments are set. “It is important for the main donors of the anticorruption reform – the EU and the IMF, to see the changes and anticorruption investigations being held,” said Daria Kalenyuk, Executive Director of the Anti Corruption Action Centre at a press-briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center.
How does the tool work?
The web site has all the conditionalities collected and split into five sections: corruption investigation and prosecution, asset recovery, corruption prevention, public procurement and access to information. Access to information is the last but not the least set of Ukraine’s anticorruption conditionalities. “Wider society and journalists must know who owns what in Ukraine,” emphasized Kalenyuk.
Ukraine’s Augean stables of corruption
Ukraine has implemented 20 of the 35 conditionalities required by its international partners. These are the IMF conditions linked to the visa-free regime with the EU. Implementation of these conditions led to the EU lifting tourist visas for Ukrainians. However, old corruption schemes are reviving, while anticorruption agencies are being discredited. “Visa liberalization with the EU was a good driving force. Ukrainian officials now have to find another motivation,” said Serhiy Leshchenko, MP of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, a member of the parliamentary committee on corruption prevention and counteraction.
One of the conditionalities that Ukraine has not implemented yet is the setup of the independent anticorruption court that would also mean complete implementation of the IMF conditions. “Our courts are completely corrupt. We have monitors attending court hearings, they register all the manipulative processes,” Leshchenko emphasized.
Hanna Hopko, MP, head of the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, emphasized that backpedaling has to be prevented. Many are not interested to see Ukraine’s National Anticorruption Bureau work efficiently. “We hope that the MPs will be helping to monitor the situation and will be adopting new legislation,” Hopko emphasized.
