(Kyiv) The Russian invasion has greatly reduced corruption in Ukraine and caused an “irreversible” change of mentality in this country, estimates the head of a Ukrainian anti-corruption agency, according to whom recent scandals confirm this trend.
“During the first months of the war, we saw that corruption had practically disappeared,” said Oleksandre Novikov, 42, head of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ANPC), in an interview with AFP after a series of searches in Ukrainian personalities and administrations.
But, after the first shock of the conflict, “some have returned to old practices”, regrets this ex-prosecutor, at the head of the ANPC for three years.
The Ukrainian authorities raided Wednesday the home of sulphurous billionaire Igor Kolomoiski – in an embezzlement case involving oil companies -, that of a former interior minister and the Ukrainian tax authorities, while the Customs Department was sacked.
Senior Defense Ministry officials have also been visited by investigators, a week after a series of senior officials were sacked in a corruption case involving army supplies, the first major scandal since the Russian invasion almost a year ago.
Ukraine, which is hosting a summit with the European Union on Friday and whose war effort largely depends on European and American support, seems to be seeking to reassure its allies about the risks of aid diversion, while the EU has made the fight against corruption a condition for Ukraine’s accession to the European bloc
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on Thursday hailed in Kyiv recent anti-corruption efforts and the “rapid” reaction of the authorities.
Change of mentality
These cases show “that Ukraine is fighting corruption”, assures Mr. Novikov.
“The level of corruption has dropped significantly in recent years,” he said, citing a survey funded by the United States Agency for Development (USAID) and carried out in the summer of 2022, in the midst of the invasion.
According to this study, 29% of Ukrainians believe that the level of corruption in their country is down, compared to only 4% the previous year. In addition, 64% of the population say they have not been confronted with this scourge in the last 12 months, compared to 43% a year earlier.
More concretely, Mr. Novikov’s agency received 1,300 complaints about alleged corruption in 2021 compared to 4,500 the year before.
The number of Ukrainians saying bribes are “never justified” rose from 40% in 2021 to 64% the following year. And the share of the population ready to denounce cases of corruption has almost doubled, from 44% to 84%, according to the same source.
“A colossal shift in public consciousness has taken place,” says Novikov. According to him, this development is explained by the unprecedented solidarity shown by Ukrainians since the beginning of the conflict, and by the unprecedented strengthening of confidence in their authorities during this period.
“When you trust the state and you perceive it as your own, you no longer tolerate any violation on its part”, analyzes the official.
However, all is not rosy in this country, ranked 116e place out of 180 according to the corruption perception index in 2022 established by the NGO Transparency International.
No major violations related to Western aid
According to Novikov, Ukraine’s financial losses related to corruption were estimated at around 7 billion euros per year in 2020. “Most of these losses were related to the tax and customs sectors. Since then, no considerable change has taken place”, regrets the manager.
On the other hand, his agency “found no major violations in the use of Western aid”. If violations concerning humanitarian assistance were discovered, they were not “significant or systemic”, assures Mr. Novikov.
It also urges the government to reinstate the online publication of state officials’ tax returns and the use of the electronic auction system for non-military purchases by the army, suspended for the duration of the war.
“These instruments must be restored, and only then will our partners be sure that their aid is being used correctly,” Mr. Novikov believes.
