The statements from the International Monetary Fund are almost always unfailingly polite, including the much-awaited June 19 one from IMF managing director Christine Lagarde. But her message about what Ukraine needs to do is clear: Fix the flawed anti-corruption court law whose details only became known on June 13, raise household gas prices to market levels as Ukraine promised to do and cut the budget deficit to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product.
And, this time, no more political tricks, as the IMF said here: “It is now important for parliament to quickly approve the supplementary law submitted by the president to formally establish the court, as well as the necessary amendments to restore the requirement that the High Anti-Corruption Court will adjudicate all cases under its jurisdiction, including all appeals of relevant first instance court decisions, as it was in the draft law approved in the first reading.”
Ukraine’s lawmakers slipped in a hidden amendment at the last minute — tricking other lawmakers and the public. It would keep the current court system — discredited and unable to deliver justice — in charge of hearing appeals of pending corruption cases. Such a provision amounts to amnesty for these suspects, many of whom are politically powerful.
Ukraine’s government has also reneged on its promise to raise domestic household gas prices to import price levels. The obstinance is not out of any concern for poor people struggling to pay their utility bills, but rather because energy barons want to keep buying gas from state monopoly Naftogaz at a deep 30 percent discount and selling it at market prices.
And, finally, re-election minded lawmakers are spending money the state doesn’t have, running up a deficit of 4 percent of gross domestic product, or nearly $5 billion.
When the history is written about the IMFin Ukraine, it will show that the lender should have been much tougher on Ukraine or never lent so much money to such a corrupt political elite. The IMF is still going easy on Ukraine’s leaders — forgetting about 11 of 14 policy objectives, including creating an agricultural land market. The IMF shouldn’t budge any more. The credit for reforms goes to the Ukrainian people, its Western friends and civil society — not the president or parliament.
