9 September 2014, Kyiv – After a long public discussion and hearings by the committees of the Verkhovna Rada, Cabinet of Ministers and Presidential Administration, draft Law “On the system of specially authorized entities in the sphere of combating corruption” was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Also, representatives of non-government organizations were selected to join the National Council of Reforms. This was reported during a briefing at the Ukraine Crisis Media Center by Deputy Chief of Presidential Administration Mr. Dmytro Shymkiv as part of weekly reporting on the steps made towards the implementation of reforms in Ukraine.
According to Mr. Shymkiv, a fight against corruption has been undertaken in four dimensions: legislation (parliamentary committees), control through the authorized representative at the Cabinet of Ministers and, strategically, through the Anti-Corruption Committee at the Presidential Administration. “We are lacking an independent investigation authority which would be focused on the anti-corruption actions of category 1 and 2 officials and judges,” said the Deputy Chief of Presidential Administration.
To ensure independence of such an authority, its chief officer is elected by a commission comprising nine representatives, with the Verkhovna Rada, Presidential Administration and Cabinet of Ministers nominating three representatives each. The director is elected through a transparent procedure laid down in the draft law. It also contains an exhaustive list of reasons for the dismissal of such a person to avoid any possible pressure or influence. The number of Bureau personnel will not exceed 700 persons, with a maximum of 7 territorial offices. High level of internal control is ensured within the organization, including annual lie detector tests of each employee, which is also stipulated in the draft law.
Mr. Shymkiv expressed gratitude to all NGO’s which helped achieve compromise and prepare the long-awaited draft law which, according to the commitments made to the IMF, should be adopted by the current Parliament.
According to Mr. Shymkiv, 256 NGO’s have put forward 340 candidates to become members of the National Council of Reforms nominated by the public. Ten of them presented their own vision of the 2020 Ukraine development and reform strategy for the consideration of economy experts on 21 August at the Kyiv School of Economics. The National Council of Reforms will be joined by: Hanna Hopko, Reanimation Package of Reforms; Hanna Derevyanko, Executive Director of the European Business Association; Daniil Pasko, member of the Professional Government initiative, President of the Ukrainian Harvard Club; Valeriy Pekar, co-founder of the Ukrainian Public Platform “New Country”. “Each of them is an opinion leader and a representative of powerful non-governmental organization, and I hope that their participation will facilitate faster implementation of reforms in the country,” said Dmytro Shymkiv.
Active work is ongoing to achieve the transparency of electronic public procurement. It involves the creation of a brand new platform for holding tenders for the procurement of goods in excess of UAH 100K and services in excess of UAH 1M. According to Dmytro Shymkiv, terms of reference to create such a platform will be finalized as early as in late September, and first tenders of the kind are expected to be held already at the end for the year with active participation of small and medium-sized businesses.