Serhiy Bochkovsky, head of Ukraine’s State Service for Emergency Situations, was handcuffed and taken away by police officers on March 25 as part of a highly publicized stunt at a Cabinet meeting as a suspect in a corruption case.
The move was
probably the first arrest of a government official at a Cabinet meeting in
Ukraine and was broadcast live. As Interior Minister Arsen Avakov explained, it was intended to demonstrate the government’s will to prosecute corrupt bureaucrats.
He said it was a “vaccine” against corruption.
Critics,
however, dismissed the arrest as a show that may not entail any serious
consequences, rather than a sure sign of a crackdown on corruption.
Bochkovsky, who
has held various top jobs at the service since 2003, was appointed as its head
in April 2014.
He and his
first deputy Vasil Stoyetsky, who was also arrested on March 25, are accused of
organizing illegal schemes to buy fuel from private companies at excessive
prices.
Some
of the funds raised were transferred through offshore companies to the accounts
of Bochkovsky and Stoyetsky, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said at the
Cabinet meeting. He said
that he would ask U.S. and E.U. authorities to investigate the financial transactions
of U.S.-based firms allegedly involved in the scheme and bank accounts
registered in Cyprus.
“When the
country is at war and every penny counts, they rob people and the state,” Yatsenyuk said. “This will happen
to everyone who scorns the Ukrainian state.”
He also said
that the whole leadership of the State Service for Emergency Situations would
be fired.
Despite the
tough talk, critics were skeptical about the move.
Boryslav
Bereza, a deputy chairman of the Vekrhovna Rada’s committee for preventing and
countering corruption, told the Kyiv Post that it was too early to talk about a
real crackdown on corruption because no one had been jailed yet.
“It’s a
specially orchestrated show. It’s eye-catching and emotional, it impresses
everyone,” he said. “A war with corruption will really begin when they are
jailed, not just arrested.”
Vitaly
Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, said by phone that the
arrest looked like a public relations stunt but added that he would change his
opinion if Bochkovsky is imprisoned, and his property is confiscated.
“It will be a
good signal only if there is a result,” he said.
He doubted the
legitimacy of the arrest, saying that the police cannot detain suspects without
a judge’s approval unless they are caught red-handed or if evidence implicating
a suspect emerges immediately after a crime is committed.
Meanwhile,
Zoryan Shkiryak, who replaced Bochkovsky as head of the service, has been
praised by commentators.
Shkiryak, an advisor
to Avakov, was previously a member of former
President Viktor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine party and participated as an activist
in the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution.
Bereza
described Shkiryak as “a hard-working man who knows his business.” He said
that, when he had cooperated with the Interior Ministry on enforcing law and
order in Kyiv, Shkiryak “fulfilled all his obligations.”
Kyiv
Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected].
