The war in Ukraine has been going on for the third year, our military is doing everything possible and even impossible to protect the territory of the state. However, while some fight, risking their lives and health, others brazenly enrich themselves. Instead of helping the military, they announce multimillion-dollar corruption tenders, receive bribes, make money from the construction of fortifications, etc. War is a time of great opportunities for them. As a result, it has a negative impact on national security, the state budget, receiving foreign aid, faith in justice and without it an extremely electrified society, and most importantly – it leads to great human losses.
A number of anti-corruption agencies have been created in our country, whose employees receive exorbitant salaries, but the effectiveness of their activities leaves much to be desired. Moreover, they themselves are often involved in corruption scandals. For example, in cases of Head of the Anti-Corruption Center Vitaly Shabunin, which we wrote about earlier.
Recently, the situation around the two main anti-corruption agencies of Ukraine – NABU and SAP – has sharply worsened. At first, the mass media reported that the SAP was conducting investigative actions at NABU regarding the leak of information regarding the corruption case about the “big construction”. Its suspect is Yurii Golik, a person close to the ex-deputy head of the Office of the President, Kyril Tymoshenko. Then the NABU issued a sharp statement on this matter, which confirmed that an investigation is indeed being conducted into the leak of information, but not by the SAP, but by the NABU.
The NABU press service reported:
“We bring to the attention of our colleagues in SAP: NABU had and still has enough resources for implementation investigation. NABU always guarantees an independent, impartial and comprehensive pre-trial investigation and expects the same approach from our main partners.”
In addition, on May 24, the Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, Semen Krivonos, removed his first deputy Gizo Uglava from his duties in connection with the provision of an objective pre-trial investigation into the alleged leak of information.
By the way, the conflict between NABU and SAP began back in 2022, when Artem Sytnyk, who enjoyed the support of Western structures and activists associated with them, left the post of head of NABU. A similar situation existed during Poroshenko’s time, when a conflict arose between the leadership of NABU and the head of SAP Kholodnytskyi. These constant conflicts between departments have an extremely negative effect on their overall goal – the fight against corruption in the state. Instead of doing exactly that, they quarrel and measure strength.
Despite the difficult relationship between NABU and SAP, as well as a large number of corruption scandals related to the actions of Ukrainian top officials, the well-known international organization Transparency International Ukraine claims that Ukrainian anti-corruption bodies “demonstrate quite good results.” As an example, the serving of a number of high-profile allegations by NABU and SAP employees to the ex-head of the Supreme Court Vsevolod Knyazev, ex-head of the State Property Fund Dmytro Sennychenko, and to the judges of the Kyiv Court of Appeal Vyacheslav Dzyubin, acting Minister of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Vasyl Lozynskyi, People’s Deputies Serhiy Labazyuk and Andrii Odarchenko. In addition, there are examples of high-profile sentences in 2023 for ex-judge Chaus, ex-prosecutor Dmytro Sus, ex-mayor of Poltava Oleksandr Mamai and ex-minister of ecology Mykola Zlochevsky.
The Transparency International Ukraine study also reports that since the Revolution of Dignity, Ukraine has gained a total of 11 points in the 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index, even during a full-scale war, which “was made possible thanks to the active work of anti-corruption and other government agencies.”
“Ukraine received 36 points out of a possible 100 in the Corruption Perception Index (Corruption Perceptions Index — CPI) for 2023, and now our country ranks 104th among 180 countries. Ukraine’s growth by 3 points is one of the best results for the past year in the world. Also, Ukraine became one of the 17 countries in this year’s SRI that demonstrated its best performance of all time.” – says the website of Transparency International.
In addition, Western publications, in particular the BBC, also write that Ukraine has achieved some success in the fight against corruption, which is “the key to victory in the existential battle against Russia.”
“Ukraine’s task now is to focus on rooting out corruption in the tax and customs services, as well as improving financial oversight. A lot of money comes to Ukraine from the West, and, of course, they ask whether there is proper control over this money.” – it is said in Air Force.
Despite the fact that certain anti-corruption measures are being carried out, a number of high-profile cases against corrupt officials are being made public, mass dismissals of TCC management have been carried out, but Ukrainians remember eggs for the military for 17 hryvnias and other purchases by the Ministry of Defense, and also see the further enrichment of officials . At the same time, their actual punishment is very rare. As a rule, after the trial, they are released from custody on bail and go abroad, living comfortably in their estates.
Contrary to the study of Transparency International, sociological surveys of the company Info Sapiens “New countdown”, show that Ukrainians consider corruption to be the main problem in the state, and corrupt officials are the main enemy (after the Russian Federation). Thus, according to the research, 61.2% of Ukrainians believe that the level of corruption increased significantly during the war, while 24% believe that it has not changed, 5% – that it has decreased, and 9% of respondents could not give an assessment.
The study identified three main groups of factors that influenced the increase in the level of corruption:
- impunity of corrupt officials (77%),
- ineffectiveness of anti-corruption bodies (53%),
- ineffectiveness of power organs (50%)
- and the judicial system (49%).
The list of causes is closed by the inactivity of citizens (26%) and public organizations (22%), as well as domestic corruption (35%).
In addition, Ukrainians pessimistically assess the possibility of improving the situation with corruption during the next year:
- 67% believe that the situation will not improve;
- 19% – that will improve;
- it is difficult to answer 15% of respondents.
On May 7, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced that since the beginning of the year, the government has allocated UAH 38 billion for the construction of defense lines.
“It is very important that they are in good condition all the time. The local government will be involved in the relevant work.” – the head of the government emphasized.
In general, it was planned to build up to 10,000 km of non-explosive barriers on the front line, as well as demining the border area. However, the fortifications did not fulfill their functions and did not deter the Russians in the Kharkiv region, and mines were not carried out, which led to the death of our soldiers and even greater loss of territory. This event caused quite a bit of indignation among Ukrainians, as a result of which a temporary special commission was created in the Verkhovna Rada on May 22. We can only hope for the objectivity of the results of her work and the fair punishment of the guilty persons, but it will not be possible to bring back the dead people.
In 2023, the President of Ukraine submitted to the parliament a draft law on strengthening responsibility for corruption, which was proposed to be equated with treason in wartime. However, it remained unexamined… It is noteworthy that the organization Transparency International considers the initiative to strengthen responsibility for corruption to be bad, explaining that it will not reduce its level, but may negatively affect European integration. A strange position!
In the matter of effective measures to overcome corruption, the experience of other countries, for example, Singapore, is interesting. From 1959 to 1990, under the rule of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore, deprived of many resources, was able to overcome almost all problems and made a high leap from a third world country to a highly developed state with a high standard of living. This country was permeated through and through with corruption, but along with the implementation of effective reforms, the death penalty was introduced for it, due to which corruption was successfully overcome. In our country, too, it has been proposed more than once to introduce this type of punishment for corrupt officials, even a corresponding petition was created on the website of the President of Ukraine, but it received only 52 votes out of the required 25,000.
Corrupt people always try to steal as much as possible, as quickly as possible and avoid responsibility by any means, because they understand that they are in power temporarily. And in this case, wartime for them is ideal for great opportunities. Dressed in khakis, they very eloquently talk and write on social networks about their patriotism, about the fact that they are doing everything for the victory of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and for Ukraine as a whole. However, it is really just a play of actors. Their cynicism, lack of moral qualities and ability to commit crimes pose no more threats to all of us than an external enemy, while the fate of the country and people do not concern them. The lack of political will in the fight against corruption, as well as the inaction of society only contribute to this. That is why corruption as a global phenomenon cannot be kept silent, because it harms our country, especially during a full-scale war.
Oksana Ishchenko
