President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych chaired a meeting of the
National Anti-Corruption Committee.
In his speech the
President stressed that fighting corruption in Ukraine remains the main
nationwide problem. "This is the issue that directly affects the
interests of every citizen and has been a "national headache"," he said.
Viktor Yanukovych is convinced that both social-economic and
political reforms depend on successful solution of this problem.
"Chronic corruption has already become an ordinary part of our life,"
he said, reminding that Ukraine has a worldwide reputation of "an
extremely corrupt country", reflected in our consistently low ratings in
the influential international studies.
The President said the
statistics of violations involving corruption are often distorted
meaning that real work to expose corruption offenses, including the ones
committed by senior officials, is substituted with bringing up cases
against only minor officers.
The President named fiscal system
among the most corrupt ones in Ukraine. "It’s a well known fact that
the most common pattern of plundering budgetary resources is VAT
refunding, however, no decisive steps to eliminate it have been taken
yet. And everyone pretends that nothing is happening, and no wonder,
since it’s convenient," he said.
President Yanukovych also
said the State Reserve is being plundered, criticized manipulations with
budgetary funds and driving most state monopolies into near bankruptcy.
In this context, Viktor Yanukovych reminded the situation with Naftogaz
Ukraine. "Its bankruptcy is unnatural altogether. It is a profitable
organization. But why do we see losses instead? I am awaiting a response
from the Prosecutor General and law enforcement bodies and demand to
immediately bring perpetrators to justice according to the law,"
stressed the President.
Viktor Yanukovych also called bribery
an acute problem. He reminded that last year law enforcement officers
exposed over two thousand cases of bribery, but the courts convicted
only 690 persons. "I expect the Interior Ministry, Security Service and
Prosecutor General’s Office to essentially strengthen their work in this
regard," he said.
According to the Head of State, the
Interior Ministry and Security Service are also to open "phone hotlines"
for citizens to report corruption and bribery. "It is crucial to
establish a system of immediate and qualified response to such signals,"
said President Yanukovych.
President Yanukovych dedicated
special attention to combating corruption in the courts.
He
reminded that the National Anti-Corruption Committee received a package
of bills on fighting corruption from the Ministry of Justice. "This
package sets the basic principles of combating corruption and defines
strategic objectives in this area," he said.
After today's
meeting Viktor Yanukovych intends to sign a decree summarizing the
meeting’s results and providing public authorities with immediate tasks
on combating corruption, he said. The Head of State stressed the
importance of establishing a public body to supervise this work.
Viktor Yanukovych also said it is crucial to get regular objective
analytic updates on combating corruption in the state. "Based on this
information 2010-2012 national strategy of preventing and combating
corruption must be prepared," said the President, adding that the
existing legislative framework also needs to be improved in order to
expand law enforcement bodies’ authority in combating corruption.
"Among the urgent issues currently remain achieving objectivity and
transparency of state authorities’ decision-making, efficiency of state
and municipal property management, wise use of budgetary funds and so
on. Leading role in this process should be given to the public," said
the President.
"Fighting corruption is a vital issue for the
whole society, as now this phenomenon really threatens national security
and constitutional order in Ukraine," summed up President Yanukovych.
From his part, Executive Secretary of the National Anti-Corruption
Committee, Justice Minister Oleksandr Lavrynovych said: "The fight
against corruption in Ukraine should focus on eliminating the causes of
corruption phenomena." He believes that all administrative officials
should be motivated properly so that entrepreneurs or citizens in
general just wouldn’t be pushed to solve their issues through bribing
particular official, judge, etc.
"Obviously, we should start
with modifying provisions of the Ukrainian legislation," said the
minister. According to him, these are, for example the order of hiring
citizens to law enforcement bodies, public services, the positions of
judges and their further promotion – "to prevent the motivation to get
back the money once spent on obtaining the appropriate status and
opportunities to decide the fate of others."
"We dedicated
attention to those positions which either substantially limited the
rights of Ukrainian citizens, or created additional motivation for
corruption within law enforcement bodies," said Minister Lavrynovych,
referring to the suggestions considered at today's meeting.
In
his turn, the head of contact group of Transparency International in
Ukraine Oleksiy Khmara supported the idea of enlargement of the national
anti-corruption committee by engaging experts from the public – both
Ukrainian and foreign, that could assist in this process.
"The
question of preventing corruption doesn’t only concern prosecution of
corruptionists but also the creation of mechanisms to halt corruption,"
he said.
Popular Themes
|
