HOT ANTICORRUPTION NEWS / Issue #113
August 30, 2019
|
|
|
Today's issue:
- Cabinet anticorruption news;
- HACC jurisdiction issues;
- President's first anticorruption draft laws;
- top intelligence official submitted his e-declaration, while SBU leadership still fails;
- recommended reading
|
|
|
Cabinet anticorruption news
|
|
|
Notorious Arsen Avakov keeps his job as the Interior Minister. Civil society is outraged
|
|
Contrary to President Zelenskyy's promise to clean the top posts of tainted officials, he insisted and this was supported by the Parliament and the Prime Minister that Avakov keeps the post of the Interior Minister. We are convinced this is a big mistake. Since now, Zelenskyy will bear political responsibility for all further failures of the law enforcement officials. More details.
Earlier, on August 28, a few hundreds of protesters demanded Avakov's resignation in front of the Presidential Office in Kyiv. More details.
|
|
|
|
“Arsen Avakov has headed the Interior Ministry for five years. He is responsible for the complete failure of police reform, the sabotaging of the re-assessment, rogue cops, and Maidan cases defendants’ occupying key positions […] the unsolved attacks on public figures, numerous corruption scandals related to him and his associates,” said a statement signed by the CSOs before the voting in the Parliament. More details.
|
|
|
Lutsenko is sacked. Riaboshapka appointed as the Prosecutor General
|
|
|
Ruslan Riaboshapka (on the photo), deputy head of the President's office, former commissioner at the National Agency for Corruption Prevention was appointed as the Prosecutor General.
We are optimistic and wish Riaboshapka best of luck with the genuine reform of the prosecutor's office!
|
|
|
|
We are also celebrating that Lutsenko's shameful era at the PGO is finally over.
|
|
|
Bakanov's statement on the SBU reform
|
|
|
On August 29, the Rada also appointed deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Ivan Bakanov (on the photo) as the SBU chief. During his speech at the Parliament, he mentioned that "SBU has to ensure fair distribution of key social goods: legality and justice."
|
|
|
|
He also stated that "..demilitarisation is our dream as it will mean that peace has come to our country".
|
|
|
#ДякуюУляна and appointment of the new Healthcare Minister
|
|
|
We are very grateful to Dr Ulana Suprun for her persistence, dedication, resilience, for driving forward comprehensive healthcare reforms, standing firmly against pressure.
|
|
|
|
Also, during a discussion of the candidacy of the new Healthcare Minister, journalists pictured part of the conversation on the phone of the head of Rada Healthcare Committee Mykhailo Radutskyi. He wrote to someone: "My person! Zoryana Chernenko" (on the photo).
Chernenko was eventually appointed as the Minister.
|
|
|
|
Radutskyi is an MP of the "Servant of the People" party and a founder of Borys clinics.
|
|
|
In April 2019, newly selected anti-corruption judges announced September 5 as the date of the High Anti-Corruption Court, or HACC, launch. However, there is a risk that the court may be well overwhelmed with lower-profile cases, leaving anti-corruption judges no time and possibility to consider the top proceedings.
The issue with the jurisdiction lies in the law, adopted in summer 2018. The estimates show that so far the HACC would receive around 3,600 cases, while only around 170 were investigated by the NABU.
To resolve this problem, on July 8, President Volodymyr Zelensky submitted to the parliament of the previous convocation, and on August 29 - to the new one, a draft law to eliminate obstacles for the launch of the HACC. The solution suggested would be transferring to the HACC only those cases that were: a) fully investigated by the NABU; or b) fall under HACC wider jurisdiction, but were started after the launch of HACC. This would enable the court to primarily focus on the top cases and allow receiving lower-level cases later and gradually. The draft law was defined by the President as urgent and requires prompt adoption. More details.
|
|
|
President's first anticorruption draft laws
|
|
|
Besides a super-urgent abovementioned draft law on the HACC jurisdiction, the President submitted a number of other draft laws which regard different aspects of the anticorruption reform.
Specifically, these are the following bills on:
- the illicit enrichment and civil forfeiture;
- the relaunch of the National Agency for Corruption Prevention;
- the judicial self-governance bodies;
- the prosecutor's office;
|
|
|
- amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code (on wiretapping for NABU, the abolishment of the so-called "Lozovyi's amendments", elimination of state monopoly on forensics etc).
More details about the draft laws are available in Ukrainian. English version coming soon.
|
|
|
Top intelligence official submitted his
e-declaration, while SBU leadership still fails
|
|
Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine Vladyslav Bukhariev (on the photo) submitted his e-declaration.
In the meantime, SBU's Bakanov keeps a bad practice of his predecessors and still ignores this provision of the anti-corruption legislation.
|
|
|
|
|
|
