«The formation of the Anti-Corruption Court is further hampered by the President Petro Poroshenko's majority in the Parliament. Dependent judges in existing courts protect the accomplices of the current state leaders from the Anti-corruption Bureau and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office». 

The following is the latest news for June 2017.

POLITICAL LANDSCAPE

Approval of the visa-free travel to the European Union was one of the few and far between instances for Ukrainians to witness in their personal lives that the country is moving forward.

On June 27th, society was shocked by another blatantassassination in Kyiv. Maksym Shapoval, the head of the Special Forces of Military Intelligence, was blown up in an official car. On the very same day, another rep of the Special Forces - Colonel of the Security Service of Ukraine Yuri Vozny, died after an explosionof mine under his car in the battlefront of the Donetsk region. 

Computer networks of large banks, power companies, Ukrposhta and Internet media were disrupted by the virus cheekily nicknamed "Petya" (an impudent form of the name of the incumbent President of Ukraine). According to the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine), the mastermind behind all three major viral attacks (that took place on the eve of the Constitution Day of Ukraine) might have come from the ranks of the special agents of the Russian Federation. 

Since the beginning of the year, 142 soldiers were killed in the Donbass War instigated by the Kremlin. Under these conditions,60% of Ukrainians are ready to vote in the referendum in favor ofjoining NATO, 66% - the European Union.

The helplessness and haplessness of the Ukrainian Security Service was highlighted by the investigation of journalists from the Schemy TV program, that showed which luxury cars are owned by employees of economic counterintelligence unit. In particular, the head of this subdivision of the SBU, Sergiy Konokhov, bought a luxurious apartment, house and car in the aftermath of Euromaidan. President Petro Poroshenko continues the policy of ignoring such facts regarding his subordinates. 

Case in point: an important member of the presidential team, the head of the National Bank of Ukraine Valeriya Gontareva, who announced her retirement in April, which coincided with the start of a large-scale investigation by the Anti-corruption Bureau, andstill was not let go. This issue simply is not put to vote in the Parliament, where the President holds the largest faction. Mykhailo Okhendovsky continues to work as the head of the Central Election Commission even though he is a Viktor Yanukovych' appointee. 

However, the presidential team was able to demonstrate the uselessness of one of its likely rivals in the presidential election - Mayor of Lviv Andrii Sadovyi. After a year-long (!) inability to remove garbage from the city, he agreed to transfer this function together with 300 million hryvnyas per year to the presidential representative in the oblast - the Lviv state administration. After that, the garbage began to be taken out of the city without any problems, where it accumulated 6.5 thousand tons. Such a solution to the problem was preceded by a 5-day hunger strikeright outside of the presidential administration by the chairman of the MP faction Samopomich Oleg Berezyuk, who was joined by parliamentary vice-speaker Oksana Syroid and Samopomich MP Taras Pastukh. 

In the Kirovograd region, the forceful detention by the police units of veterans of the current war with Russia, who came to the aid of local farmers attacked by raiders, has caused great public indignation. Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov, in turn, ignored the apparent violation of the law by his subordinates, who mockingly and openly showed indecent gestures to citizens after the arrest of veterans.

HIGH LEVEL CORRUPTION CASES

The Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office appealed to the Parliament to allow the prosecution of 3 of our colleagues representing the ruling parties. Yevgeniy Deydeyof Narodnyi Front is suspected of illicit enrichment. His colleaguesMaksym Polyakov and Borys Rosenblat from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc face abuse of office charges. 

The Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine conducted an operation to expose their actions together with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. And this is the first completed operation, where the undercover agent played a key role - she pretended to be a representative of a foreign company, whom Rosenblat and Polyakov agreed to help to (illegally) extract amber in exchange for bribes. In these conditions, the Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko also intensified his work (at last). As you will know, I have been initiating a no-confidence vote of the Parliament against him since last November. At the moment, 44 MPs have supported this proposal in writing. To vote in favor of distrust against the Prosecutor General we need signatures of 150 MPs.

After the operations of the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, Lutsenko also asked the MPs to allow three members of the Parliament to be brought to criminal responsibility. All three are from factions and groups that in name are in opposition, although in fact are linked to the ruling parties by common corruption schemes. Andriy Lozovyy from Radical Party of Oleg Lyashko is suspected by the Prosecutor General's Office of tax evasion. Oles Dovgyi from the Volia narodu group and Mykhailo Dobkin from the Opposition bloc are suspects in the case of facilitating the illegal allocation of land plots in 2007-2008, when the said individuals were in the offices of the secretary of the Kyiv City Council and the mayor of Kharkiv, respectively.

Also, the Prosecutor General's Office received the consent of the court of the central district of Kyiv to begin the conviction of former President Viktor Yanukovych. The GPU accuses the latter of state treason after his fleeing to Russia, from where he called upon Putin to intervene in Ukraine. At the same time, the Prosecutor General's Office announced its proceedings on two former Yanukovych officials - Minister of Income and Assets Oleksandr Klymenko and Minister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Prysyazhnyuk. Both are suspected of theft of state property.

Moreover, during June, the Prosecutor General's Office showed progress in investigating the cases of terror against Euromaidan. The court has received a charge against the former deputy commander of the "Berkut" platoon and two "titushky" (goons-for-hire) who helped special forces to attack Avtomaidan. Altogether, 350 allegations against members of the law enforcement and "titushky" were sent to the courts, but only one of those resulted in a conviction and a real time in prison.

Members of our Parliamentary Committee on Corruption Prevention from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, Narodnyy Front and Opposition Bloc continue to push for the appointment of an auditor to the Anti-corruption Bureau from Parliament. The negative review of the auditors could lead to dismissal of the directors of the bureau. Since March I have been blocking the announcement of recommendation from the committee (that is being put forward with procedural violations), insisting that we should select an auditor through an open competition.

REFORM OF PROSECUTORS OFFICE AND THE JUDICIARY

President Petro Poroshenko awarded the Order of Merit to the prosecutor of the Prosecutor General's Office Kostyantyn Kulyk. Isn't that a funny coincidence, that Kulyk is also the first personaccused by the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office of illicit enrichment? His unemployed wife bought luxurious apartments and cars at the time when he served as the prosecutor of the anti-terrorist zone in the Donbass. Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko chose to transfer Kulyk to the position of deputy head of the Department of International Legal Cooperation of the Prosecutor General's Office after the investigation.

Prosecutor General's Office explained away the aforementioned award with Kulyk's participation in the "confiscation" of 1.5 billion dollars that belonged to Viktor Yanukovych's posse. In March, Kramatorsk City Court reviewed and approved a decision within two weeks, the text of which is still classified, in contravention of the law. According to this decision, the Prosecutor General's Office "confiscated Yanukovych's money". Our committee demanded of the Prosecutor General to remove the illegal classification of a court decision.

The contest for the election of a new Supreme Court continues with many abuses. 138 out of 381 of interviewees were recognized by the Public Council of Integrity as not meeting the criteria of integrity and professional ethics. But the High Qualifications Commission of Judges did not take 82% of these negative reviews into account.

After four months of blatant neglect, the parliamentary committee on legal policy, headed by an abettor of the President, Ruslan Knyazevich, decided to ask the speaker of Parliament to submit a draft law on the formation of the Anti-corruption court for examination by the Venice Commission. The draft law was registered by me with a group of colleagues on February 1st. We propose the creation of a court for sanctioning and sentencing the investigations of the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office. Judges, according to our proposal, should be selected with the participation of representatives of the USA, the EU and the UK to ensure the purity and unbiasedness of the selection procedures. Speaker of the Parliament Andriy Parubiy took advantage of Knyazevych's recommendation, and that allows the Parliament to postpone the consideration of the draft law at least until autumn. 

OPEN REGISTERS OF PROPERTY AND ASSET DECLARATIONS

Chief Military Prosecutor Anatoly Matios, who in April forced the Anti-Corruption Agency to limit access to the e-declarations of 200 military prosecutors, initiated the closure of declarations of all officials "carrying out tasks in the interests of defense and security." The chairman of the Agency, Natalia Korchak, informed our committee about such an intention of his. We held committee hearings and called for refrainment from such a legislative initiative.

Effective verification of e-declarations in the Agency is further blocked. The member of the Agency, Ruslan Radetsky, who is responsible for this, blocks the adoption of the necessary decisions by the agency. The member of the Agency, Ruslan Ryaboshapka, who generally supported Radetsky's position,resigned. The idea of ​​the Minister of Justice to adopt a special lawon the early dismissal of all members of the Agency fails to find support from the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko and the Samopomich. The reasons behind this: Presidential faction is well-served by the current state of the Agency (which is - being firmly in the lurch), while my faction fears that the new agency leaders will be under even greater control of Petro Poroshenko and Narodnyi Front, one representative of which is currently (and conveniently) the Minister of Justice. 

OPEN DATA ON PUBLIC SPENDING

On the portal, where all payments with taxpayers' money are to be made public, 38 218 administrators and recipients of such funds are currently registered. This makes for 48% of those who must report. For the first time, this number has decreased during June (drop in 521 listed organizations). The Law on the Transparency of the Use of Public Funds, adopted in 2015, requires the promulgation of all payments for taxpayers' money. The problem is not only the lack of data but also the lack of journalists and active citizens who would use this data to exercise the public control.

LUSTRATION AND REFORM OF STATE SERVICE

Head of the Parliament Andriy Parubiy persistently refuses to to put to the vote the draft law that we have drawn up in the spring of 2015, that incorporates recommendations of the Venice Commission on lustration legislation. In particular, it obliges future candidates for members of the Parliament and the Presidents to prove the legality of the origin of their families' property.

TAX REDUCTION, DECENTRALIZATION AND DEREGULATION

We have passed a law on commercial accounting in the field of central heating and water supply. If the law is signed by the President, the companies supplying water and heat will be obliged to install meters in every household. Since Soviet times, most of the apartment complexes have been hooked up to the water supply and power plants without any accounting, which gave rise to both huge waste by residents and fraud in pricing by suppliers.