To the President Petro Poroshenko,
Chairman of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov
Prime Minister of Ukraine Arsenii Yatseniuk
Open letter on establishing the specialized anti-corruption body
Dear Sirs,
We, Ukrainian non-governmental organizations and experts, united in the “Reanimation Package of Reforms” (Set of Emergency Reforms) initiative, are working on reforming the legislation on corruption counteraction and integrity of public authorities, hereby urge the President of Ukraine, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to take immediate measures to establish the specialized anti-corruption body as soon as possible.
As we know, establishing a law enforcement anti-corruption body is one of the key conditions for Ukraine to implement the requirements of the Action Plan for visa liberalization with the EU, as well as determined by the recommendations of a number of the international organizations to Ukraine, such as European Council and OECD. Establishing the specialized body for investigation of high-ranking corruption is also a condition for Ukraine to receive financing from the International Monetary Fund, European Union and other donors. However, we do not see significant progress in the issue of approving the necessary legislation and establishment of the mentioned body for the last six months in Ukraine, unfortunately.
Recently, at the organizational meeting the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in his speech concerning the National Council for Reforms stressed on the necessity to approve the Law on Anti-Corruption Bureau as soon as possible. For this purpose the Presidential Administration prepares the Presidential variant of the draft law on the specialized anti-corruption body, which shall be soon submitted to the Parliament for review.
We welcome such intention and underline once more – such body for controlling integrity and political influence shall be established only and exclusively on the basis of the laws and shall focus on pre-trial investigation of high-ranking corruption. While the investigation of lesser breaches of the law and performing preventive functions in the sphere of anti-corruption shall be performed by other institutions. For this purpose the experts of the Reanimation Package of Reforms together with the specialists of the Ministry of Justice and the Parliamentary Anti-Corruption Committee developed the draft law on the National Bureau for Anti-Corruption Investigations in March, 2014. In the process of developing the body model the experts worked out the best international practices and considered Ukrainian context. The draft law also proposes to introduce the elements of crime on illegal enrichment in accordance with the UN Convention against Corruption.
In the process of establishing the specialized anti-corruption body the key task is providing its social legitimacy and independence. That is why we are sure that the body management shall be appointed not on the political basis or previous arrangements, but only on the basis of transparent and open competition according to the criteria of personal qualities of candidates.
In this regard, we hereby urge the President of Ukraine to submit the draft law on the specialized body for investigation of high-ranking corruption to the Parliament as soon as possible. This draft law shall correspond to the abovementioned provisions. And also we hereby urge Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to consider and approve the mentioned draft law without delay.
The immediate approval of this draft law on the anti-corruption investigation bureau is a reason not only for effective corruption counteraction, but also for allocation to Ukraine of the financing from the international organizations, especially the IMF (about 1.4 billion USD) and the EU (more than 100 million EUR). They determined the establishing this body as the condition for further financial support for Ukraine.
Sincerely,
Anti-Corruption Legislation Reform Group
Reanimation Package of Reforms:
- Oleksii Khmara, Transparency International Ukraine
- Vitalii Shabunin, Anticorruption Action Centre
- Dmytro Kotliar, Chief expert of the group
- Ivan Sikora, Open Society Foundation
- Viktor Taran, Centre for Political Studies and Analytics
