"Not all legislative initiatives of the Government designed to curb corruption have been supported by the Parliament yet. But I believe that the Parliament is willing to curb corruption, to reduce the influence of power on economic processes, and thus – to introduce economic freedoms for the Ukrainian economy and the Ukrainian business", stressed Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk during the International Anti-Corruption Conference “Preventing. Fighting. Acting” on Monday, November 16.
The Head of Government stressed that the current agenda for Ukraine contains two principal challenges: "The first challenge is the fight against external aggression, Russian terrorism. The second challenge is rooting out corruption".
He told about the steps made by the Government over the last
20 months in the area of fighting corruption.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk noted that the biggest corruption entwined into the oil and gas sector in Ukraine: "Gas oligarchs and billions of dollars pumped out of the national joint stock company Naftogaz were destroying the state budget and created billionaires at the expense of the budget funds and at the expense of money of the taxpayers."
"We no longer have intermediaries in the gas sector, we have deprived of illegal deals and kickbacks in the energy sector. We have only direct agreements between the member countries of the European Union, European companies and Ukraine. And we have only direct deals between Ukraine and the European Union and a notorious company Gazprom", said the Head of Government.
The state returned control over Ukrnafta in which it owns 51% of the shares: "The Government of Ukraine submitted the relevant law to the Parliament. The law was passed and signed by the President. Ukrnafta got a new chairman who was elected through a transparent and open competition. This company has now embarked on a complete change in the composition of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board and, the most essential - the system and the management structure of the company".
The PM emphasized
that in the last 20 years tycoons had been formed in Ukraine primarily due to
shadow privatization, covered straightforwardly by previous governments,
"was created for a particular buyer instead of attracting foreign
investors, but created favorable environment for emerging the Ukrainian
oligarchs through such shadow privatization schemes".
Over the last 20
months there have not been operated any shadow privatization schemes in
Ukraine, said the Head of Government.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk
reminded that due to the imperfect law on privatization and the lack of a new
form of assessment for privatization objects, the Government had stopped the
privatization of one of the largest public facilities - the Odessa Port Plant:
"We were aware that the current legislation provides an opportunity to buy
for the so-called investor 5% of shares, and we knew who was ready to buy these
5% to prevent a real foreign investor from buying the remaining 95% through an
open auction."
The Government
submitted to Parliament bills on changing the conditions of privatization and
the list of privatization objects. However, stressed Arseniy Yatsenyuk, it had
been the sixth time when the MPs had refused to back these legislative
initiatives.
The Cabinet of
Ministers also held a civil service reform. To ensure implementation of the law
on purification of government there were dismissed from high posts of the
Ukrainian public authorities over 700 civil servants: "These are first
deputy ministers, deputy ministers, 42% of the top
leadership of the State Fiscal Service. It makes up 15% of the staff of the
State Fiscal Service in the regions".
"The
implementation of the law of Ukraine about the cleansing power is another step
in the fight against corruption", added the Head of Government.
The Government
established a National Anti-Corruption Agency – a preventive authority with a
function to verify the declarations of public servants, incomes, property of
each civil servant" and check what they spent and what they wrote in the Declaration":
"The National Anti-Corruption Agency will be formed. The Government agreed
with public organizations and our western partners and completely changed an
order of forming of the competition commission. The competition commission is independent,
and it is due to elect a chairman of the National Anti-corruption Agency and
relevant deputy heads".
Arseniy Yatsenyuk
accentuated that Ukraine is among few countries in Europe that fully opened
registries of property: "Now, anyone can obtain data through the website
of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine about what the Prime Minister of Ukraine
has in possession, what any other leader of any ministry possesses, who is an
owner of a particular immovable property, shares, businesses. This is another
part of our anti-corruption strategy – full transparency and access to all
databases. And we will prolong our actions in this issue".
In addition, the
Government has embarked on deregulation: "We have halved the number of
different controlling authorities, licences, permits,
that were the source of nothing but bribes and bureaucracy in the
country".
"Unfortunately,
not all legislative initiatives have been supported by the Parliament. But I
believe that the Parliament is willing to curb corruption, to reduce the
influence of power on economic processes, and thus – to introduce economic
freedoms for the Ukrainian economy and the Ukrainian business", summed up
the Prime Minister of Ukraine.