Pravo (Dec 2008)
LAW RESPONSIBILITY FOR CORRUPTION CRIMES
Abstract
In accordance with the recommendation of the GRECO Group (a group of states against corruption) Ukraine has to immediately develop a detailed plan of actions aimed at realization of the national anticorruption strategy. The plan of actions should as far as possible take into account a potential cooperation and assistance of the international community. At the same time, a number of phenomena is observed in Ukraine, that prevent realization of the global initiatives of the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko aimed at curbing the level of corruption in the governmental organs. The main aspects aggravating the problem of corruption in Ukraine are as follows: insufficient maturity of the civil society democratic institutions that are underdeveloped and unable to control the activities of the representative and the executive power branches; the non-governmental organizations declaring their anticorruption purposes (approximately 200 of them are active in Ukraine) have no real influence upon the situation; the country lacks political and social traditions of public exposure of corrupt officials; dissemination of corruption facts in mass media does not always have an adequate response of the public, the law enforcement organs, and, first of all, judicial authorities. The procedure of punishment for corruption offences, provided by the Law of Ukraine „On the Struggle Against Corruption”, has not become an efficient means of fighting this phenomenon and provides for only the administrative responsibility. By the opinion of domestic and international experts, this Law does not meet the international standards and contributes to the negative image of Ukraine as a state that does not have adequate legal mechanisms and political will to fight the corruption. It is suggested in the recommendations given on the basis of the results of monitoring carried out in 2007, that Ukraine should revise the system of the administrative responsibility for corruption in order to establish a clear practice of considering cases related to commitment of corruption infringements as criminal offences. The work performed in order to execute the Threshold Program of the „Millennium Challenges” corporation intended to curb the level of corruption in Ukraine, undersigned by the governments of Ukraine and the USA in December, 2006, and the joint project of the Council of Europe and Ukraine, titled „The Project of Countering Corruption in Ukraine” (the project of UPAC) is not fully efficient. Obligations of Ukraine by the aforementioned projects envisage a number of measures: strengthening of the civil society functions related to detecting and uncovering of corruption in governmental organs, reforming the legal procedures, improvement of applying the ethic and administrative standards and public control of the execution thereof, upgrading of the efficiency of applying the standards and procedures of countering corruption in the sphere of higher education.
