Denys Maliuska: Ukraine continues anti-corruption reforms during the war

Minister of Justice Denys Maliuska spoke at the 2024 OECD Global Anti-Corruption & Integrity Forum (GACIF), which is taking place in Paris, France. In his speech, he spoke about the importance of fighting corruption in Ukraine and the steps that have already been taken.

In particular, the Minister noted that the issue of corruption had become an existential one in the context of the war. According to him, Ukraine needs to be as transparent as possible to earn the trust of its partners and accumulate resources to fight the enemy and build Ukraine’s post-war economy. "At the same time, we have made significant progress in establishing independent anti-corruption bodies and are ready to continue implementing international standards to become better and be among the leading countries,” said Denys Maliuska.

“The unique situation in Ukraine is that even during the war, we continue to implement anti-corruption reforms and improve our system to meet the best international standards,” said the head of the Ministry of Justice.

At the same time, he noted that Ukraine’s journey to create an effective anti-corruption structure was quite long. The Ministry of Justice first attempted to establish regular contacts with the OECD’s anti-bribery working group in 2009, when the Ukrainian Parliament adopted the initial framework legislation on preventing and combating corruption. However, it was not until the Revolution of Dignity in 2014 that reforms were truly implemented. It was then that Ukraine received a significant impetus and demand from civil society to implement reforms.

“Ukraine has created an anti-corruption system, including legislation that ensures maximum transparency of the wealth of civil servants and politicians... We are probably one of the leading countries in terms of transparency of the asset declaration system,” the Minister said, stressing that today Ukraine has a well-functioning system of anti-corruption bodies (NABU, NACP, SAP, HACC).

Denys Maliuska expressed hope that Ukraine would soon join the anti-bribery working group as a member, having successfully completed a two-year period of preparatory work and adaptation to the minimum requirements of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention necessary for joining the working group.