It has been one of the frequently noted allegations that those individuals, who have previously marred themselves with corrupt activities, have so far been "left to be" and effective high-level prosecution was virtually absent. Corruption, as it exists in Ukraine, is double-rooted. Firstly, the regulatory environment is conducive for corrupt actions, and, secondly, the system of effective prevention and prosecution mechanisms is lacking.

As far as the first area is concerned, UNDP Ukraine has been working on enabling a more effective "ex ante" corruption risk screening through equipping the civil society with a simple-to-use methodology for civic anticorruption expert assessment. As a result, UNDP has been requested by the Parliamentary Committee on Combatting Corruption and Organized Crime to assist replication of the developed methodology into the works of the Committee through its Civic Expert Council. Owing to the support from UNDP, the Council managed to process 140 draft laws between August and December of 2013 with almost one third of those (27%) returning a risk-positive result.

Assessment results, made public on the Committee website, showed that some of the corruption-generating factors appeared much more often than the others. Thus, for instance, conflicts of laws, loopholes or wide administrative discretion instances were spotted in a total of 103 draft legal norms. In the course of expert work, specialists also identified cases of what could be termed a "nation-wide corruption scheme". Draft law 2302(a), for instance, proposed to regulate the procedure of issuing permits for performing price evaluations for real-estate. The permit-issuing authority would, according to the previously proposed law, receive excessively wide and unclear powers in this regard.

 

At present, the Civic Expert Council continues conducting corruption risk assessments and improving the mechanisms and tools used throughout the process of civic anticorruption expert assessment. Amongst some of the most important issues currently on the agenda is the adoption of mechanisms for mandatory consideration of the expert assessment results before the final adoption of the regulation into action.

After major changes in governance and advent of the new Cabinet of Ministers, March and April 2014 saw a number of long-awaited breakthrough laws that were adopted due to popular and expert demand.

 

Amongst these are the draft Law 0947, which, amongst other things, allows free public access to master plans of cities (to determine construction plans on the territory of the municipality), provides for obligatory publication of assets declarations at the official websites of government bodies, prohibits restriction of access to the State Roster of Corruption Offenders, and precludes situations where a public official may refuse to disclose documentation based on the argument that it contains personal data.

  

Another sphere that has seen improved regulatory frameworks is state procurement, where new norms promulgated by the Law 4587 reduce the number of exceptions from procurement rules, prohibit relatives of tender committee members to partake in competitions, lower the threshold for obligatory tendering procedures, and allow both journalists and civic activists to have audio-/video-recording and photography at the time of "envelope opening".

 

Alongside these legislative initiatives, the first two months of spring brought about renewed intentions to institute an effective and comprehensive anticorruption system. These comprise a corruption-prevention body (the National Corruption Prevention Commission), a high-level prosecution and investigative body (National Bureau for Anticorruption Investigations), and a National Anticorruption Strategy to guide the 2 prospective agencies, spelling out an overall vision of Ukrainian government and business as free from corruption. The ideas and actions to support the establishment of such a system initially sprang up within the framework of the so-called "Reanimation Package of Reforms" civic initiative, and later on were supported by the Ministry of Justice and the Parliamentary Committee on Combatting Corruption and Organized Crime.

The initiative kicked off with the development of the new National Anticorruption Strategy draft to replace the already existing but ineffective policy document and its accompanying National Programme. Drafted initially by TI Ukraine, the concept was eventually finalized through a participatory discussion at the Parliamentary Committee on Combatting Corruption and Organized Crime with support from the UNDP Democratization and Human Rights Programme. This round-table discussion allowed to exchange opinions, garner inputs from different stakeholders, and forge alliances for advocacy necessary to turn the concept into a living law.

In a similar move, UNDP Ukraine supported expert inputs into the concept draft law for establishment of the National Corruption Prevention Commission and helped convene a 60-expert meeting at the Ministry of Justice for the discussion of the concept and shaping it into a draft ready to be submitted to the state's legislature.

The situation surrounding the National Bureau for Anticorruption Investigations seems to be more complicated as various stakeholders continue to clash over their own vision for the "chief corruption prosecution body" of the country. As of recent, 4 draft laws have been submitted to Parliament, and heated debate continues between the civil society, the Office of the Government Agent for Anticorruption, the Ministry of Justice, and the relevant Parliamentary Committee.

Apart from expert and organizational support to strengthening the national anticorruption framework, anticorruption initiatives were also catalyzed through a study tour to Moldova co-organized by UNDP Ukraine and the International Renaissance Foundation for 12 specialists (civic experts, representatives of the Ministry of Justice, Parliamentary Committee on Combatting Corruption and Organized Crime and Office of the Government Agent for Anticorruption). The participants were able to get first-hand information from the country's National Anticorruption Centre, E-Governance Centre, National Commission for Integrity, as well as from prominent civil society organizations that work on corruption prevention and transparency.

At present, with the draft laws on the National Corruption Prevention Commission and the National Anticorruption Strategy under finalization, and contending laws that describe the National Bureau for Anticorruption Investigations in Parliament, most efforts of the civil society and anticorruption specialists in the legislative and the executive branches will be concentrated on advocacy and promotion of civic-backed regulations. This may be a complicated time for advancing the anticorruption agenda due to multiple concerns on the national agenda, including preservation of territorial integrity. At the same time, the windows of opportunity opened through changes in late February 2014 are not likely to last long, and promotion of the above-mentioned initiatives is to be intensified while the political will lasts. Concerted efforts and relentless will to pursue a more robust anticorruption governance system are key to leading the initiatives to success.