Anti-corruption agencies join forces in the fight against corruption - Artem Sytnyk
Decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine aimed at decriminalizing the articles on e-declaration and illicit enrichment dealt a serious blow to anti-corruption reform, but failed to stop it. This was stated by NABU Director Artem Sytnyk at the Discussion "Constitutional crisis in Ukraine: a year later" attended, inter alia, by the leadership of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, and the High Anti-Corruption Court on Oct. 27, 2021.
"There is a certain resistance tendency: after one of the anti-corruption tools proves efficient, such as the invalidation of illegal agreements, the CCU passes a decision. Unfortunately, due to a lack of political will, we cannot be sure that the Constitutional Court will not strike again in the future. However, it is almost impossible to break the unity of anti-corruption agencies, given the path we have come," the NABU Director said.
On Oct. 27, 2020, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine ruled to abolish criminal liability for misstatements in asset declarations. Due to this, NABU and SAPO had to close 111 criminal proceedings, of which 77 in full and 34 in part. At that time, 34 cases were already in court, and decisions had already been made against 13 people.
"Fortunately, after the CCU ruling on e-declaration, a number of decisions were made enabling the NAPC to restore public access to the register of e-declarations and conduct special inspections. However, we have inevitable negative consequences: more than 4,700 criminal proceedings investigated by law enforcement agencies have been closed", added Oleksandr Novikov, Head of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention.
Representatives of the parliament, the High Anti-Corruption Court and public organizations also took part in the talk.
