Sluggish Fight Against Corruption in Eastern Europe, Explained

In the 2016 Corruption Practices Index, Transparency International ranks Ukraine 130th, up 12 spots from the last report, but the country moved up only one point, scoring an overall 27 points.

“It is very bad… If the country scores less than 30 points out of 100 points, it’s a board of national shame” Andiry Marusiv, the head of Transparency International Ukraine tells citing Ukraine’s poor performance.

According to Marusiv, blame can be placed on the Ukrainian Government for not prioritizing corruption after the Maidan: “All the governmental anti-corruption policies are either poorly implemented or actually the new set of anti-corruption measures is still in the development or even stalled”. Ukrainian MPs have gone further to stop new asset declarations, not wanting to report publicly their purchases higher than $1000. “There is a clause in the criminal code about illegal enrichment. If the public official is not able to show legitimate income…with the help of which he or she bought ‘that bag’ then you will face prison.”

Although many of the corruption schemes set up by former President Yanukovych are now destroyed, Ukraine is still on the same corrupt level as other post-Soviet countries. “The only exceptions are Baltic countries and Georgia, who are scoring far higher than Ukraine,” Marusiv says.

Hromadske spoke with Anriy Marusiv, Head of the Board of Directors of Transparency International Ukraine during the live broadcast of the Sunday Show in Kyiv on January 31, 2016.