“Corruption is turning into an institution” (in Ukrainian), by Vitaliy Portnikov, espresso.tv, March 26 (https://espreso.tv/article/2020/03/26/vitaliy_portnykov_korupciya_peretvoryuyetsya_na_instytuciyu), the translation that follows is by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing:
Experts from the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (known by the acronym GREC0) have concluded that Ukrainian authorities have thus far been unable to ensure the effective implementation of reforms aimed at combatting corruption among members of Parliament, judges and prosecutors.
The most interesting conclusion of the GRECO experts is that the previous convocation of Parliament began implementing some of the GRECO recommendations, however, the new, current convocation of Parliament rejected most of the proposals. Serious questions from the experts, from the point of view of corruption risks, were caused by the so-called “turbo-regime” – an abusive legislative bacchanalia that came into being after the formation of a single-party majority. …
We should call things by their names. In 2014-2019 there was – albeit often without particular enthusiasm by Ukrainian authorities, and under pressure from Western creditors, experts and Ukrainian civil society – a systemic institutionalized fight against corruption. …
The new president of the country and his team declared themselves honest people and announced that corruption in the highest echelons of government will be ended. But the institutionalized conditions for the development of corruption only became stronger. …
The last year became a year of diminishment of Ukraine’s immunity to corruption. There should be no illusions here. A closed decision-making process in the hands of one person closely tied to the oligarchs, who goes to them with requests for help and assistance in any difficult situation is a breeding ground for corruption.
The attempt to subvert the judiciary and procuracy to the principles of political expediency is a breeding ground for corruption. The absence of effective parliamentary checks on the actions of the executive branch is a breeding ground for corruption. Incompetence in managing oblast administrations is a breeding ground for corruption. And finally, a breeding ground for corruption is dilettantism, incompetence and the absence of systemic approaches in those same high-ranking officials. …
That’s why corruption is not simply defeating the state. Corruption remains the essence of state administration, it’s eating away the state from within.…