National deputy says he sees no progress in fighting corruption (10/30/05)

National deputy says he sees no progress in fighting corruption

by Yana Sedova
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine has made no progress in combating corruption since the Orange Revolution, and the effort is hopeless, said National Deputy Volodymyr Stretovych, the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada's Committee on Combating Organized Crime and Corruption.

Mr. Stretovych offered his surprisingly candid and somber assessment at an October 24 roundtable discussion attended by reporters and leaders of the Pora Civic Party, the political party that evolved from the Pora movement during the Orange Revolution.

Pora leaders asked why government authorities have failed to prosecute those who broke Ukrainian law in the years leading up to the Orange Revolution, those who falsified votes during it, and the lawbreakers since then.

Lack of political will is the main reason for losing the battle against corruption, Mr. Stretovych told the roundtable. "The government is sowing permissiveness," he said. "That is why we'll never build a lawful state."

Corrupt schemes and bribery are still widespread in the top levels of government, Mr. Stretovych stated.

All law enforcement authorities, including the Procurator's General Office, the tax and customs services and all levels of the police are still highly corrupt, the Committee on Combating Organized Crime and Corruption stated in an October 7 report.

"All those whom the president called bandits skillfully migrated to the new authorities," said National Deputy Mykola Karnaukh, a Socialist Party member who is the committee's secretary.

In the months since the Orange Revolution, for example, the Procurator General's Office often requested legal cases from its regional offices and then closed them within a few days, which "became a real epidemic," Mr. Stretovych said.

The courts have become corporations that work to benefit corrupt officials, he said. Judges have even been business partners of defendants in criminal or civil cases, he said.

"How can one expect unbiased court hearings in this situation if a plaintiff has a corporate interest with a judge?" Mr. Stretovych said. "We don't know what to do with corruption in the courts. Every day it is becoming worse."

Even after the Orange Revolution, corrupt officials dominated Ukraine's legal institutions, Mr. Stretovych said, specifically naming former Procurator General Sviatoslav Piskun and his wife, Svitlana.

Mrs. Piskun and Svitlana Azarova, the wife of former Vice Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, established a company, Planet of Investment, which illegally appropriated enterprises in Ukraine and "robbed European companies," Mr. Stretovych charged.

Mrs. Piskun is also the daughter of Supreme Court Chief Judge Anzhelika Hrek.

"Oligarchic clans ruled and still keep ruling the country, and use legal authorities to ensure private interest," Mr. Stretovych said.

A special commission will investigate the business activities of Planet of Investment this week.

However, it is doubtful anyone will be punished, Mr. Stretovych said, since it's not obligatory to implement the committee's decisions, according to the bill regulating its activity.

Even after Mr. Piskun's dismissal two weeks ago, powerful businessmen still evade prosecution.

Mr. Piskun filed criminal charges against Petro Poroshenko for bribing businessmen in order to gain control of a $16 million luxury high-rise on Hrushevsky Street in Kyiv.

The Procurator General's Office closed the case on October 21, a week after President Viktor Yushchenko fired Mr. Piskun.

Mr. Yushchenko happens to be the godfather of Mr. Poroshenko's twin daughters.

In recent remarks, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko accused the Yushchenko government of preferring to cut deals and compromising rather than combating corruption.

"Today everything is leading to a swamp, where everyone comes to agreement, signs memorandums and compromises," Ms. Tymoshenko said. "And now the only ones in conflict with the government are those people who expected real changes."

Though every year the number of appeals is growing, Mr. Yushchenko's administration failed to stand up against corruption, said Mr. Stretovych, who is a member of the Our Ukraine coalition and was a member of the Christian-Democratic Union when elected to the Verkhovna Rada in 2002.

"The new bandits with new authorities will never go to jail," he said. "Those who committed misdemeanors will be imprisoned. But those who steeped their hands in blood or stole millions will be out of prison."

The same day that Mr. Stretovych made his comments, five Kyiv city council deputies called their own press conference to allege that businessmen have been buying the top positions of the Our Ukraine People's Union party electoral lists in order to secure themselves political positions and immunity.

"Places on the party lists are simply sold," said Oleksa Yurchenko, an Our Ukraine People's Union council member representing Kyiv's Darnytsia region.

There is no strict and transparent separation of government and business within the political party, he added.

Nor has the Verkhovna Rada been of help, Mr. Stretovych said. During the last three years, the Verkhovna Rada hasn't supported a single anti-corruption bill, he said.

"If the committee makes a decision, the Parliament is supposed to approve it. We have many facts that show when the committee says 'yes,' the Parliament says 'no.' This is absolutely impossible," he commented.

When corruption victims submit complaints to his committee, its procedures not only fail to protect them, but also leave them at the mercy of those they accuse, he said.

For example, when local police officers informed the committee about corruption on the part of superiors, the committee sent a letter of inquiry to the local government. As a rule, the accused official is the one who receives the letter, he said.

It's not surprising, Mr. Stretovych noted, that the committee always received the same answer: "The facts mentioned in your letter were not confirmed."

"A reverse effect happens," Mr. Stretovych said. "Police officers often refuse to write appeals, explaining that they might get into trouble."

Even the national deputies on his own committee are indifferent, he said. Only three or four of its 16 members attend the committee's meetings and make an honest effort, Mr. Stretovych explained.

Sometimes the deputies fail to pass decisions or recommendations at their meetings because there is no quorum.

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