This op-ed was originally published as a post on the author’s Facebook page. It has been translated by the Kyiv Post with the author’s permission and lightly edited for clarity.
On April 6, President Petro Poroshenko invited representatives of civil society organizations for a meeting. There were some 15-20 people. This was a real dialogue that lasted two hours.
Poroshenko admitted that such meeting and open communication with civic organizations should have taken place sooner. The president admitted that he had made two major mistakes in previous years: a) personnel b) communication.
I have voiced to the president four priorities on the anti-corruption agenda that over 20 civic organizations support.
Relaunching the National Agency for Corruption Prevention and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office: Poroshenko supports the necessity of relaunching these agencies. In the near future, we will send him a draft law with our vision of such a relaunch on behalf of the coalition of civic organizations.
Security Service of Ukraine (SBU): Poroshenko supports the idea of stripping it of the power to conduct economic investigations. At the same time, other law enforcement agencies must be stripped of the power to investigate economic crimes, too — in particular, the police. Establishing a new government body for financial investigations/a national bureau for financial investigations would be a step toward this goal. My key message is that there must be an independent procedure for recruiting the head of such an agency with the participation of international experts, following the example of judge selection for the High Anti-Corruption Court. We will look for a compromise regarding such a procedure.
We also discussed staff matters regarding Serhiy Semochko, the deputy head of the State Intelligence Service, who is suspected of illegal enrichment, and Pavlo Demchyna, deputy head of the SBU, who is also suspected of illegal enrichment. The president recognizes the toxicity of these people in public office. I hope they will be removed from office in the nearest future — at least one of them before the April 21 runoff election.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau: The president supports its director, Artem Sytnyk, despite having some criticisms of the agency’s work. Poroshenko emphasized that he doesn’t interfere with NABU’s work.
Anti-corruption court judges will be appointed by the president in the coming days.
Several participants in the meetings raised the demands of the Who Killed Kateryna Gandziuk initiative to dismiss Andriy Hordeyev, governor of Kherson Oblast, and his deputy Yevhen Ryshchuk.
Poroshenko’s response: Hordeyev handed in his resignation letter on April 6 after a conversation with the president. Officially, he will be dismissed from the governor’s office in 7-8 days.
My thoughts: How beneficial such dialogue would have been for the president, for civic activists, and for Ukraine in general had it taken place sooner.
At the same time, I highly respect the president for admitting his mistakes. This is a powerful step. Mistakes can be fixed by real actions. Some may happen in the coming days.
After all, trust is built through actions. This is what we agreed upon with the president.
Daria Kaleniuk is the director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center in Kyiv.
