In 2011, the Verkhovna Rada managed to
piece together only the basic framework for a new system, and the
2012 follow ups meant to clarify the process. However, the law that
came about, “On
Rules of Ethical Conduct of Public Servants”,
is so vague that no one is quite sure how to implement it.
Despite some encouraging provisions,
such as mandating disclosure of any expenditures over 15,000 euros,
the new legislation carries over almost all of the disabling
components of its predecessor: the complete lack of an investigative
or regulatory body in charge of verifying the accuracy of reports, as
well as no provision for electronic publication.
This latter component means the
Ukrainians’ only access to information on their public employees’
finances are through the ministries’ official periodicals, which are
print-only documents that are not normally seen in the wild in
quantities higher than five or ten. Their propensity to disappear
entirely means that they are roughly as effective a means of
communication as writing in the sand at Yalta slightly before high
tide.
It doesn’t appear that there is
widespread motivation inside the government to change the status quo.
The popular Chesno
civic movement for transparency of finances managed to focus public
attention squarely on parliamentary integrity before the last
election, yet managed to convince less than a quarter of parliament
to voluntarily release their declarations of assets. Similar requests
made to members of the executive branch were even less successful.
Ukraine is a country where wealthy,
well-connected consortia crawl out of the woodwork and snap up
national assets with
amazing regularity. Small and medium-sized
businesses are kept on the outskirts of the economy by cumbersome
regulations that favor large, oligarch-run enterprises. The problem
is so bad that Ukraine, at 137th place, claims, the
lowest ranking of any European country in the
World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index.
At present, a bill
authored by non-government organization, civic activists, and legal
experts has been sitting before parliament since December, neither
approved nor rejected, that would begin the process of rectifying the
current situation.
Its passage would be the first step
towards guaranteeing the people of Ukraine their right to understand
the web of money and influence that controls and limits their
national economic and political capabilities. Whether the current
Ukrainian government has the will or desire to change its inherited
Soviet culture of opacity and secrecy, remains to be seen.
Oleksii Khmara is the
president of Transparency International Ukraine.
