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HOT ANTICORRUPTION NEWS / Issue #140
March 20, 2020
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Today's issue:
- Rada adopts a package of laws aimed at fighting COVID-19 pandemics;
- Iryna Venediktova is appointed as the Prosecutor General;
- Constitutional Court used forged translation of the report of Venice Commission in its recent decision;
- Prime Minister Shmygal adopts electricity tariffs in favour of Akhmetov's companies. Parliament appoints Minister of economy;
- how certain MPs block "Anti-Kolomoisky" draft law important for cooperation with IMF;
- MPs appeal prosecution reform to the Constitutional Court;
- recommended reading
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Rada adopts a package of laws aimed at fighting COVID-19 pandemics
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On March 17, Verkovna Rada adopted the package of laws aimed at fighting COVID-19 pandemics. The MPs refused to support the suggestion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to introduce new types of criminal offences related to "intentional spreading of infectious disease". Alternatively, they strengthened the responsibility for violation of sanitary norms.
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Public procurements for medical needs would be exempted from Prozorro system, but all the reports should be published there. Now it is allowed to make 100% prepayment for those procurements.
Also, the MPs postponed the deadline for filing electronic asset declarations until June 1, 2020.
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Iryna Venediktova is appointed as the Prosecutor General
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On March 17, the Parliament also appointed Iryna Venediktova as Prosecutor General. She was Zelenskyi's legal advisor during the Presidential campaign and was No. 3 on the party list for the parliamentarian elections. Later she chaired Rada Committee on Legal Policy. Prior to her political career, she was the civil law professor at the Kharkiv University.
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She applied to become a judge of the Supreme Court in 2016-2017, but did not get enough scores to pass the threshold. She was also a Vice President of the Association of Cosmetologists and Aromologists.
Though she had no experience in the criminal law, in late December 2019, she was appointed the interim head of the State Bureau of Investigations. During her speech in the Parliament prior to the appointment as PG, she stated the law on amnesty of Maydan protesters should be cancelled and as the PG she promises to send to courts "fair guilty verdicts" to be adopted. A few weeks ago, she also filed unsubstantiated lawsuit against Ukrayinska Pravda and AntAC.
At the moment, the interim head of the SBI is Oleksandr Babikov, the former attorney of Viktor Yanukovych.
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Constitutional Court used forged translation of the report of Venice Commission in its recent decision
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Roman Kuybida, the expert of the Centre for Political and Legal reforms, informed that the Constitutional Court used forged translation of the report of Venice Commission in its reasoning of the recent judgement to cancel the judicial reform. The court alleged that the Ethics Commission does not have the right to vet the HCJ members, although the Venice Commission stated quite the contrary.
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Prime Minister Shmygal adopts electricity tariffs in favour of Akhmetov's companies. Parliament appoints Minister of economy
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On March 18, the Cabinet of Ministers imposed 65% duty at import of electricity from Russia. The market analytics claim that this will play into DTEK corporation owned by Rinat Akhmetov. Current import of the electricity is less than 1% and allegedly has deterrent influence at the price making at the electricity market for the monopolist. Notably, Prime Minister Shmygal used to previously work for DTEK. Also, Shmygal suggested transferring powers of the Parliament to the President.
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On March 17, Rada appointed Ihor Petrashko, a former executive at agricultural giant UkrLandFarming, as Minister of Economy, trade and agriculture. The owner of UkrLandFarming oligarch Oleh Bakhmatiuk is wanted by NABU for large-scale embezzlement and banking fraud. Also, Petrashko worked for Russian banking and asset management firm Troika Dialog, known for "Troika Laundromat" money laundering scheme.
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How certain MPs block "Anti-Kolomoisky" draft law important for cooperation with IMF
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The IMF expects Ukraine to adopt the law granting impossibility of returning banks to former owners and the land reform law. If the land reform law has been considered during few weeks before the second reading, the first one, which has already been called “anti-Kolomoyskyi”, cannot in any way receive favorable decision in the key Committee of the Verkhovna Rada. Please read more on how the MPs controlled by the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky block important draft law in our article.
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MPs appeal prosecution reform to Constitutional Court
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52 MPs from the Opposition Block for Life, Batkivchshyna, and a few out-of-faction ones sent the appeal to the Constitutional Court calling into question the conformity with the Constitution of the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Priority Measures for the Reform of the Prosecutor's Office", the law that authorized the reform of the prosecution. We would like to remind that some MPs has already registered the draft law No.3062 aiming at rolling back the prosecution reform.
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