On Nov. 26, the Ukrainian government claimed it had signed a landmark billion-dollar energy deal with a Spanish company to build a liquified natural gas terminal. Journalists were puzzled because two government bodies named two different companies.

The agreement was praised as the fruit of yearlong talks: to form a bilateral consortium that would build the terminal, to help Ukraine to ween itself off expensive Russian gas, and to redeem the country’s poor investment climate.

But the government’s hopes were dashed when it became clear the signatory wasn’t an employee or authorized representative of either Spanish company. 

As the old adage goes, if you keep digging holes for others, you might just fall into them.

Making matters worse, officials first insisted everything was normal, then turned to a range of excuses – from technical problems to Russia-orchestrated conspiracy theories. For all their best intentions, the plans went awry.

Whatever the actual reasons for the strange event, this would never have happened if the government had from the start adopted a policy of transparent public procurement and rules-based administration.

If details about the investment were made public, journalistic and other scrutiny could have helped overcome the failings of official vetting. As is, the deal remains concealed by red tape and secrecy.

The whole affair could simply be a scam artist convincing Ukraine’s top officials that he would arrange a billion-dollar investment as long as they grease the wheels.

Just as in the case of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund – when government officials left meetings in Kyiv to go to Washington, supposedly in hopes of finding someone that could “solve the problem” of a frozen lending program – Ukraine’s leaders have shown that they prefer to pressure  individuals rather than follow the rules of institutions.

The same attitude was visible after the Oct. 28 parliamentary election, when top government officials lashed out against employees of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, rather than address the concerns raised by the watchdog’s report.

What the case exposed is a chaotic system that favors insider deals and other forms of corruption, leaving the country vulnerable on many fronts. As the old adage goes, if you keep digging holes for others, you might just fall into them.