No struggle against corruption in sight…

On May 15, parliament adopted the long-suffering anti-corruption bill in the second reading, albeit without three articles and the conclusion. They were postponed until Friday or even the next plenary week. We remind our readers that on June 1, 2009, the MPs adopted laws concerning the fight against corruption submitted by then President Viktor Yushchenko. However, the MPs postponed them from coming into effect twice under different pretexts, and later refused altogether. The consideration of Viktor Yanukovych’s bill dragged on as well, being amended and postponed. As a result, the examination of candidates for high governmental positions was significantly simplified; there is no ban on gifts for officials, as long as they do not cost more than 400 hryvnias, and, what is the most important, they did away with the obligatory property statement for officials’ relatives.

“This law only pretends to be combating corruption. You don’t want to fight it, you ran it, and you’re completely happy with the situation,” Arsenii Yatseniuk expressed his indignation. By the way, the parliament didn’t support any of his amendments.

It’s true that the absence of the article on property statements made the anti-corruption bill useless. It’s even unclear why they had to change the anti-corruption legislation, which is quite good, if this crucial point is excluded. The three abovementioned articles will be examined in a third reading. After the articles are examined and adopted, the bill will be submitted for consideration and adoption. Article №1 concerns the terms in the law; article №11 concerns the special examination of persons pretending to positions in the institutions of state and local government; article 12 concerns financial oversight.

However, BYuT member Ostap Semerak remains pessimistic. He doesn’t believe that the opposition will manage to change anything dramatically. “The third reading is mostly editing. Just comas or dashes. Nothing can really be changed then.”

So, what do officials have to prepare for? The innovation of the bill is that all the gifts received by officials are state or municipal property. All gifts have to be given to state or local government. The violation of this rule will lead to criminal responsibility.

Public servants will no longer be allowed to employ close relatives, or even formally unrelated people living with them officials.

The bill also provides for the introduction of a Unified State Register for people that have committed corruption-related crimes. However, it’s hard to believe that any of the present high-ranking officials can be inscribed in it.