The
meeting was held in the framework of adjustment of the bills "On the Rules
of Professional Ethics in Public Service, and Prevention of Interests
Conflict" (Reg. No.4420-1), "On the State Financial Public Service
Control" (Reg. No.4472), "On the National Anti-Corruption
Investigation Bureau of Ukraine" (Reg. No.5031) for parliamentary
scrutiny.
John F. Tefft, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Ukraine, David Lewis and John Engstrom, Resident Legal Advisors, U.S. Department of Justice at U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, Goran Klemencic, Head of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (Slovenia), state power and public representatives took part in the meeting.
Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Legislative Support of Anti-Corruption Policy, Control for the Citizens´ Rights Observance and Cooperation with Public and other Organizations O. Riabeka emphasised that the Committee took "action together with the state power bodies, international experts, national scientists and anti-corruption specialists to form the national anti-corruption legislation with the effective tools of corruption counteraction and prevention, and the ways of its implementation."
The participants discussed the topical areas of anti-corruption policy in Ukraine and conformity of the Ukrainian legislation to the international anti-corruption standards.
J.F.
Tefft, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, declared that
"Ukraine has an opportunity to adopt a number of bills to reform the
anti-corruption legal system, which is essential for Ukraine to meet its
commitments before the UNO and the Council of Europe." According to him,
"corruption fighting is vitally important for the development of business
sector in Ukraine, as well as for its economic welfare." He repeatedly
made the point that USA would always support Ukraine in its anti-corruption
pursuit. He also expressed his hopes that these laws would be adopted in the
nearest time to allow the authority to enter the next essential phase their
enforcement.
Goran Klemencic, Head of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption of Slovenia, stated that "the anti-corruption legislative base of Ukraine unfortunately remains imperfect. The crucial reforms to be implemented by the Parliament concern the issues of ethics, conflict of interests in legislation regarding the state officials, financial supervision via property declaration, expenses and income; setting up of the National Anti-Corruption Investigation Bureau of Ukraine; and several anti-corruption laws to come into effect on January 1, 2011.
A. Bohdan, Governmental Commissioner for Anti-Corruption Policy, upheld the coordinated cooperation with the Parliament, the Committee and the Government as to implementation and development of new anti-corruption laws, and incorporation of the international anti-corruption standards into the Ukrainian legislation. He stressed the importance of an international anti-corruption cooperation. R. Riaboshapka, Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, reported on the topical directions of anti-corruption policy in Ukraine. Namely, he focused attention on the necessity to alter the public opinion about the notion of ‘corruption´ itself: "As far as the society is tolerant to the corruptive elements, we shall explain the citizens a model of settling the problems without corruption and bribery, and find other ways to persuade citizens in our intentions", he explained.
People´s
Deputy of Ukraine S. Vlasenko, as a co-author of the bills on the rules of
professional ethics in public service and prevention of interests conflict,
deems necessary to introduce anti-corruption tools, i.e. counteraction and
prevention of interests conflict in the activity of the public officials, and
introduction of the efficient system of declaration of income and expenses of
the public officials.
The participants of the round table discussion debated establishment of a specialized anti-corruption law enforcement agency in Ukraine. In his report, O. Riabeka, one of the initiators of the relevant bill, emphasised that current institutional model was ineffective, and called for specialization of the anti-corruption system.