You're reading: Kostiantyn Likarchuk: Authorities get rich as they ignore interests of Ukraine

Name: Kostiantyn Likarchuk
Position:
Private lawyer
Key point: Ukraine needs to cleanse its politics, government

It’s time for Kostiantyn Likarchuk to say “I told you so.”

In 2015, he was the first to blow the whistle on Ukraine’s State Fiscal Service Chief Roman Nasirov, accusing him of theft and corrupt customs schemes.

“Now we are where we are, and the head of the State Fiscal Service is in prison, and everything I talked about turned out to be true,” he told the Kyiv Post during a recent interview.

After accusing his boss of graft, Likarchuk, at that time deputy head of the State Fiscal Service, was fired. Some 18 months later, he says Nasirov’s case is a telling example of how a state service is turned into a corrupt business for insiders.

According to Likarchuk, now a partner at Kinstellar law firm, while the State Fiscal Service brings some $22 billion to the state budget yearly, another $9 billion ends up in the pockets of authorities.

Nasirov was arrested by Kyiv’s Solomyansky Court on March 7. He is suspected of illegally allowing participants of an alleged corrupt scheme at state gas producer Ukrgazvydobuvannya to delay tax payments, costing the state Hr 2 billion ($74 million).

He was released on Hr 100 million ($3.7 million) bail on March 16.

“They don’t want to build this state up,” Likarchuk told the Kyiv Post of many politicians who form the ruling elite. “Instead, they’ve turned the state into a commercial structure.”

Whistleblower

After Likarchuk accused Nasirov of restoring ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s corrupt customs schemes, Nasirov struck back. He slammed Likarchuk for corruption, without providing any details or evidence, and dismissed him in September 2015.

A Kyiv Administrative Court canceled Likarchuk’s dismissal and reinstated him on Nov. 2. The Court of Appeals upheld the decision on Dec. 14. The State Fiscal Service later filed another appeal, which is under way, Likarchuk said.

But he said he doesn’t plan to come back to the State Fiscal Service. He is waiting for their move.

“To fire me again, they have to first officially reinstate me. But nobody knows what I will do in that case,” he said.

Abandoned customs

Likarchuk believes that customs, a part of the State Fiscal Service, has to become a separate agency. So does the tax service, he said.

“Customs doesn’t have a centralized management system,” he told the Kyiv Post. “No one is developing the customs policy for Ukraine. So it appears that there are separate regional customs offices that are left on their own and do whoever knows what.”

Likarchuk said he tried to change the situation while in office. However, nobody listened to him, including the government.

The Finance Ministry, headed by Natalie Jaresko from December 2014 to April 2016, did not interfere with the State Fiscal Service, Likarchuk recalled. He said Jaresko’s team entered the Cabinet of Ministers mainly to restructure Ukraine’s public debt.

After Likarchuk was dismissed, Jaresko said it was a good sign because she wanted “a team that works together.” She told the Kyiv Post: “I believe that you either come in and work on the team or you stay out and criticize, and that’s your choice.”

According to Likarchuk, after the EuroMaidan Revolution that drove President Viktor Yanukovych from power on Feb. 22, 2014, many new politicians entered government, but there wasn’t a big shift of the political class.

“To see that, it’s enough to look at the list of parliament members,” he said.

Self-preservation instinct

Likarchuk said a transformation of the ruling elite would not take place until there is a new election law.

“We need a proportional election system with open lists of candidates, as well as significant restrictions on lawmakers’ immunity,” he said.
Ukraine’s parliament can do it if it wants, he said.

“It takes our parliament a couple of hours to change the legislation on prosecution, and let a person without a law degree become the new prosecutor general,” Likarchuk said, referring to the changes that were made to appoint Yuriy Lutsenko, former head of the President Petro Poroshenko faction in parliament.

The bill appears to have been tailored for Lutsenko and voting took place at record speed and accompanied by procedural violations.
Poroshenko appointed Lutsenko as prosecutor general on May 12, the same day the bill was changed.

“The political will has to emerge, and it has to be dictated by the self-preservation instinct,” Likarchuk said. “A shift in the elites is inevitable. And if they want to keep their capital, enterprises etc., they will prepare a smooth transition for that.”