Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said that he has signed a package of anti-corruption laws.
"For the past 15 months we have worked hard to eradicate this shameful phenomenon [of corruption]. As a result, we have at last adopted anti-corruption legislation, in particular the law on the principles of preventing and combating corruption. I signed these laws yesterday," the president said at a meeting of the National Anti-Corruption Committee in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The presidential press service quotes Yanukovych as saying that the Ukrainian public is losing about Hr 20 billion in uncollected revenues or through embezzlement through corruption schemes.
In addition, according to the estimates of the Accounting Chamber, last year direct losses in the sphere of state procurements totaled about Hr 10 billion.
The president said that in Ukraine corruption has become a form of existence of the bureaucratic machinery and is the reason for the large-scale transition of the economy into the shadow "which poses a threat to our country’s security."
He said Ukraine is satisfied with its cooperation with GRECO and intends to heed its recommendations in the future.
