You're reading: Sytnyk appointed Ukraine’s first anti-corruption bureau chief

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on April 16 appointed ex-prosecutorial investigator Artem Sytnyk as head of a newly established and much-hyped Anti-Corruption Bureau, established to crack down on the endemic, historic and widespread corruption in the nation.

“The front line of fighting against corruption isn’t less important than the front line that Ukrainian heroes are holding in Ukraine’s east,” Poroshenko said during a ceremony where he introduced the 35-year-old as Ukraine’s first chief of the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

Little-known by the public, Sytnyk raised eyebrows in 2011 when he resigned from the investigation department of the Kyiv city prosecutor’s office, citing disagreement then-President Viktor Yanukovych, ousted by the EuroMaidan Revolution Feb. 22, 2014.

A little more than a year after the revolution, Sytnyk will now hold sweeping powers to investigate alleged wrongdoing by all government officials, from police to prosecutors and judges to lawmakers – all they way up to the president himself.

The salary for this daunting task is set at a monthly rate of Hr 60,900, or $2,800. That’s far above what most government officials officially make legally. Sytnyk says his salary is sufficient for a public service job.

“It is a decent salary,” Sytnyk to the Kyiv Post hours before he was chosen by Poroshenko over another leading contender. “An official shouldn’t be rich. If you want to be rich, go into business, not government.”

But just as Poroshenko appointed Sytnyk, a flurry of rage erupted on social media, with some questioning his declaration of a salary of a mere Hr 23,500 last year (some $1,000), while working as a partner in a law firm along with former Kyiv prosecutor Yuriy Haysynsky.

Calls to Sytynk after his appointment for reaction to the criticism were not immediately answered.

But in earlier comments, Sytnyk conceded that much work lies ahead in building up the 700-person agency, Sytnyk said he will combine Ukrainian and foreign anti-corruption experience to build the first brand new law enforcement agency in Ukraine since Soviet days.

In Georgia, for example, if an official faces up to the corruption charges, he pays off (the fine) and doesn’t get to hold public office anymore,” Sytnyk said in laying out one initiative under consideration.

Sytnyk said he already knows who he will be asked to join his team in what lawmakers hope will be an independent corruption fighter. But he refused to name them.

After introducing Sytnyk, Poroshenko expressed hope that “foreign experts will be invited.”

Vitaliy Shabunin of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, a watchdog organization, said that of the 176 candidates that applied for the job, Poroshenko had favored David Sakvarelidze. He is one of a handful of former Georgian government officials credited with reducing corruption under the presidency of Mikheil Saakashvili, the exiled former president who now serves as reform adviser to Poroshenko.

Sakvarelidze was excluded by a selection commission, which by April 7 had narrowed down the candidates for Poroshenko to choose between two finalists.

The other was 53-year-old Mykola Siryi, a lawyer best as part of a defense team representing ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko during her politically-motivated criminal trial under Yanukovych’s rule.

While some analysts praised both Sytnyk and Siryi for being independent of any political camp, critics claimed stronger candidates existed but were not allowed to apply because of unnecessary limitations.

One example, according to Yuriy Butusov, a journalist who served on the selection committee, is a condition requiring 10 years of law or prosecutorial practice.

“One more ridiculous thing – those with any connections with political parties over the last two years were forbidden,” Butusov said. “De facto, lawmakers showed they consider themselves dishonest people.”

Overall, Butusov described the process as a first in terms of transparency for Ukraine and concluded that the country’s leadership is “still learning.” There was, however, no “systematic pressure on the commission,” he stressed.

Anti-corruption watchdog Shabunin urged Sytnyk to swiftly form the anti-corruption bureau and get his hands dirty in work soon.

Refering to Sytnyk’s salary, Shabunin said “it is very competitive … especially if we compare it to salaries in other law enforcement departments.” They generally earn several hundred dollars per month. The lowest salary envisioned for the 700-strong staff of the anti-corruption bureau will be just under $800 per month.

“If we wait for the law enforcement agencies to be reformed, Ukraine will die of corruption,” Shabunin warned.

Kyiv Post staff writer Alyona Zhuk can be reached at [email protected]