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HOT ANTICORRUPTION NEWS / Issue #146
July 05, 2020
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Today's issue:
- Head of National Bank resigns under pressure from President Zelenkyi;
- Parliament wants to roll back procurement reform;
- PG Venediktova dumps Bakhmatiuk's criminal proceeding worth UAH 1.2 bln;
- Law Enforcement Committee chooses members of Selection Commission for new SAPO head;
- recommended reading
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Head of National Bank resigns under pressure from President Zelenkyi
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On July 1, the head of National Bank of Ukraine, Yakiv Smoliy, resigned because of “systematic political pressure that denied fulfilment” of his duties. Allegedly pressure came directly from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. This move threatened the independence of the NBU, which has been one of the key results of recent banking reform. As a result of Smoliy's abrupt ousting, the Ukrainian government has decided to pause a planned $1.75 billion Eurobond sale.
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Parliament wants to roll back procurement reform
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On June 24, the Parliament registered draft law No. 3739, which will roll back the procurement reform and violate the main principle of Prozorro, namely, equality and competitiveness. The law will introduce the non-price criterion of localization in procurements of mechanical engineering. In this way producers who have confirmed their “nationality” will receive advantage in tenders. The opaque mechanism for confirming the degree of localization will definitely become huge corruption risk.
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The implementation of "localization" will negatively affect competition and lead to overspendings during procurements. The initiative also violates international commitments which Ukraine has taken within the framework of the Association Agreement with the EU and the Agreement on Public Procurements within the WTO. CSOs has repeatedly warned the Ukrainian government of dangers of such initiatives.
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PG Venediktova dumps Bakhmatiuk's criminal proceeding worth UAH 1.2 bln
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On June 26, PG Iryna Venediktova illegally closed NABU's investigation on embezzlement of 1.2 billion UAH of stabilisation loan given to VAB bank. This decision threatens fair prosecution of oligarch Oleg Bakhmatiuk. At this time, the investigation has reached its final stage, but the detectives has beene forced to stop it.
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This will mean that 10 suspects could avoid punishment, and damages will never be recovered to the state. In this article, we explain in details why this decision is illegal.
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Law Enforcement Committee chooses members of Selection Commission for new SAPO head
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On July 1, the Law Enforcement Committee has selected 7 members of the Selection Commission for new SAPO head. They should be confirmed by the Parliament in the upcoming weeks. Most of them are connected to Ministry of Interior and do not have sufficient experience in fighting corruption as required by law.
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The proposed members of the Commission are Dmytro Zhuravliov, Vitaliy Kuts, Andriy Meleshevych, Viacheslav Navrockyi, Bohdan Romaniuk, Yevhen Sobol, and Larysa Udalova. The detailed information about the nominees is available here.
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