Ukraine’s authorities have finally taken a step that, according to President Petro Poroshenko, was the last one for the nation to be granted the visa-free travel to the European Union.
They elected the board of directors for the National
Agency for Prevention of Corruption, thus launching the crucial body that has
existed only on paper since its creation in March 2015. They did so mere hours
before the deadline set by the EU and Poroshenko’s trip to Brussels, the EU’s
administrative capital.
The agency is a vital component finalizing the
anti-corruption efforts of post-EuroMaidan government and civic activists. It
will oversee the execution of the law on electronic assets declarations for
officials, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on March 15.
The agency has been idle for a year since its
creation, as the special commission could not select enough members to the
agency’s board of directors.
Andrei Marusov, the head of Transparency
International Ukraine and a member of the selection commission, said that the selection
has been stalled because the civic activists on the commission could not reach
agreement with the representatives of the government, who are loyal to Prime
Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
In December, after months of fruitless meetings,
the commission elected two board members. At least two more were needed to
launch the agency.
Early this week, the commission members still
had no compromise, but the time was tight. On the evening of March 16,
Poroshenko was scheduled to fly to Brussels to present the country’s progress
to the EU leadership, including the adopted declarations law and the working
anti-corruption agency to execute it.The missing two members were finally
elected on the afternoon of March 16. About two hours later, Poroshenko’s plane
took off to Brussels.
The compromise was made after the government
representatives on the commission agreed to vote for Ruslan Riaboshapka, a
candidate favored by civic activists that they previously opposed.
After the special commission selected Ruslan Radetzky (L) and Ruslan Riaboshapka (R) into the board of directors of the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption on March 16, the body can start working.
Riaboshapka is an anti-corruption expert with
the Reanimation Package of Reforms. He is also a former deputy justice
minister, a job he says he quit from “over the personal conflict with Ukraine’s
Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko.”
Ruslan Radetzky, another candidate selected on
March 16, is a lawyer. In 2015, Radetzky served as a deputy head of the
prosecutor’s office in Kyiv’s Desnyanskiy district.
Natalia Korchak and Oleksandr Skopych have been
selected during the first round of selection.
Korchak is an associate professor of
administrative law disciplines in the National Prosecution Academy of Ukraine.
Skopych, who has been serving as a civil servant through almost his entire
career, is a deputy head of the National Agency for Civil Service.
Vitaliy Shabunin, head of the board of directors of
the Anti-Corruption Action Center, welcomed the launch of the agency. However,
he said that only one of the selected members, Riaboshapka, is completely
independent from the authorities, and he will need to confront another three so
that neither of the decisions made by the agency would favor the political
elite.
“Many forget that the National Agency for Prevention
of Corruption won’t be focusing only on the asset declarations,” he told the
Kyiv Post. “It will have plenty of functions, including the audit of political
parties’ finances. Its political price is extremely high.”
Oleksandr Danylyuk, deputy head of the President’s
Administration, who was also one of the commission’s members, in his cheerful
post on Facebook shortly after the vote on March 16, said that “it was the last
step of meeting the requirements for the visa-free travel.”
“We fulfilled 138 out of 138 requirements,” he wrote.
“In an hour we are taking off to Brussels with good news!”
Tough compromise
According to Marusov, during the first round of
competition in December, 2015, when two candidates were already selected, he
suggested a compromise – activists would support Natalia Korchak, favored by
the pro-government members, and they will in turn vote for Fedir Venyslavskiy,
supported by civil activists.
After Korchak got enough votes, and Venyslavskiy
was left behind one vote short from being elected, the selection process was
stalled, and the commission announced another round of selection process.
Yatsenyuk said on Dec. 11, 2015 that three board
members were enough to run the agency.
However, one of three appointed members,
independent lawmaker Viktor Chumak, resigned on Jan. 28, citing the number of
violations during the selection process and saying that it was impossible to
choose an independent agency’s head if there are only three members on board of
directors.
During the second selection round, the
commission shortlisted 11 candidates.
Two of them stepped down to endorse another
candidates, including Riaboshapka.
During the meeting on March 15, the commission
voted on each candidate, but neither of them received required six votes. Civil
members in the commission said they won’t support anyone, until Riaboshapka is
elected.
Shabunin said only their principal stance on the
matter made it happen, as “the political elite made everything possible for him
not to be elected.”
