The launch of electronic declarations is a key condition for Ukraine to obtain a visa-free regime with the European Union.
The National Agency for Preventing Corruption is considering launching electronic declarations in two stages, Shabunin wrote. The first stage will include judges, lawmakers and other officials and will be completed by Oct. 15.
Constitutional Court judges may want to annul the electronic declaration law to avoid having to fill out such declarations, while other officials included in the first stage may also try to block the process, Shabunin said.
According to Shabunin, top officials – including the president, prime minister and others – will have even more time to hide their assets, as they will be included only in the second stage.
Shabunin has also consistently uncovered and fought corruption schemes, and helped in the launch of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau.
Anti-reformer of the week: Pavlo Demchyna
President Petro Poroshenko on July 16 appointed Pavlo Demchyna as the first deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine and head of its anti-corruption department.
Demchyna is an ally of President Petro Poroshenko’s grey cardinal Ihor Kononenko, according to Viktor Trepak (Demchyna’s predecessor on the job), businessman Gennady Korban, and other sources.
According to ex-Deputy Prosecutor General Vitaly Kasko, Demchyna has protected top prosecutors arrested last year on graft charges – Oleksandr Korniyets and Volodymyr Shapakin – by helping to prosecute investigators who went after them.
Trepak, who was replaced by Demchyna, helped to arrest Korniyets and Shapakin, but quit last November, saying that his anti-corruption efforts were being blocked.
Trepak said on July 20 that Demchyna was planning to fire the security service employees who helped to prosecute Korniyets and Shapakin. One of Trepak’s former subordinates, ex-EuroMaidan activist Oleg Yakymchuk, quit earlier this month, saying he no longer saw any opportunities for fighting corruption.
Odesa Oblast Governor Mikheil Saakashvili has accused Demchyna of running a protection racket for nut exports.
Last year Demchyna ordered employees of the security service to inspect nut exporters, which partially paralyzed their operations.
Meanwhile, Radio Liberty on July 15 published a story according to which Myroslav Prodan, a newly-appointed deputy of State Fiscal Service head Roman Nasirov, is being investigated in two abuse of power cases linked to walnut exports.
Demchyna and Prodan, an ally of Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, deny the corruption accusations.
