Following the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (CCU), only ordinary officials may be held liable for corruption offences. This was stated by the Head of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, Oleksandr Novikov, during the forum “Dialogues on Reforms: on the way to Vilnius”, organized by the Reanimation Package of Reforms Coalition.
“Administrative liability for corruption offences need to be reintroduced. Society should understand that now an ordinary official, relatively speaking, - a senior specialist at any Ministry or government agency, is responsible for corruption offenses – administrative. Instead, for example, MPs or Ministers, are not held liable,” – NACP Head states.He added that such situations misrepresent the requirements of the Constitution of Ukraine, which establishes equality of all citizens under the law.
“Failure to resolve this issue causes lack of legal clarity and irresponsibility. This enables top-level officials to commit corruption offences,” – emphasized Oleksandr Novikov.In addition, in his speech, the NACP Head stressed that adoption of the Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2020-2024 in the second reading shall be among the Parliament’s top priorities today.
“We believe that if the Anti-Corruption Strategy had been adopted at the time of the CCU’s consideration, it would have created a framework, in particular for the judiciary and the CCU, which would have established where the state was heading”, - NACP’s Head added.
