Reformer of the week: Oleksandr Danyliuk
The Prosecutor General’s Office has opened a tax evasion case against Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk, saying that he acquired a Hr 2 million house and deposited Hr 519,600 in 2010 to 2014, when he was an economic advisor to ex-President Viktor Yanukovych.
In late July and early August, Danyliuk dismissed the case as a political vendetta for his efforts to crack down on graft schemes. He said he had paid all the taxes and his expenses had been financed with well-paid businesss jobs he had held in London before 2010.
Danyliuk has clashed with State Fiscal Service Chief Roman Nasirov, who has been charged in a graft case, as well as with controversial President Petro Poroshenko Bloc lawmakers Ihor Kononenko and Nina Yuzhanina, People’s Front lawmakers Tetiana Chornovol and Serhiy Pashynsky and Vidrodzhennya faction leader Vitaly Khomutynnik, who allegedly wields influence over customs.
Danyliuk has also opposed amendments that would allow ICU, an investment bank that services Poroshenko, to profit from a value added tax refund scheme through the issuance of state bonds.
He has backed the liquidation of Ukraine’s corrupt and repressive tax police in January. However, the tax police continued to exist in a legally gray area and on Aug. 2 opened a criminal case against the Anti-Corruption Action Center in what the watchdog sees as a crackdown on anti-graft activists.
Danyliuk has co-founded the Kakha Bendukidze Free Market Center with ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, a political rival of Poroshenko who was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship by the president on July 27.
Danyliuk has promoted a reform that seeks to introduce tax breaks for businesses and reduce corruption in tax collection. He has also pushed for pension reform and customs reform.
Anti-reformer of the week: Nataly Sevostianova
Deputy Justice Minister Nataly Sevostianova, a member of the Citizenship Commission, and 10 other commission members on July 26 voted for stripping ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship, helping President Petro Poroshenko get rid of a major political rival.
Sevostianova has triggered controversies by declaring $358,000 in different currencies in cash and two luxury cars worth about $77,000, as well as by helping a top tax official escape the 2014 lustration law on the dismissal of officials who served ex-President Viktor Yanukovych.
Oleksiy Takhtai, the Interior Ministry’s state secretary and another commission member, also backed the move to strip Saakashvili of citizenship.
In video footage uploaded to YouToube, people resembling Takhtai, then Deputy Interior Minister Serhiy Chebotar and Vasyl Petrivsky, CEO of state firm Spetservis, negotiate a corrupt deal to sell sand seized in a criminal case. According to the court register, the video footage is genuine and has been recorded by the Security Service of Ukraine. Commenting on the accusations, Takhtai has said that he had not seen the video.
In the video, Chebotar says that Interior Minister Arsen Avakov is also aware of the deal and is worried that the sand has not been sold yet. Chebotar had to resign due to corruption scandals in 2015. Poroshenko Bloc lawmaker Serhiy Kaplin said then that a notice of suspicion had been prepared for Chebotar, and he had fled Ukraine. Petrivsky has been charged by prosecutors with embezzlement.
Presidential Administration Head Ihor Rainin’s Chief of Staff Oleksiy Dniprov, who must be fired under the 2014 lustration law, voted for the decision on Saakashvili too. Poroshenko has refused to fire Dniprov regardless of the law.
Dniprov is under investigation in a theft case against his former boss, ex-Education Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk.
The move was also backed by Security Service of Ukraine Deputy Chief Viktor Kononenko, who headed the unit that organized a paid protest in front of anti-graft activist Vitaly Shabunin’s house, according to a Radio Liberty investigation.
The decision, which some lawyers deem to be illegal and unconstitutional, was also supported by other commission members. These include Presidential Administration Head Ihor Rainin, Kyiv Law University Rector Yury Boshytsky, political scientist Viktor Voivalovich, Presidential Administration official Maksim Moiseyev, Deputy Defense Minister Ivan Rusnak; State Border Service Deputy Chief Vasyl Servatyuk, and State Migration Service Deputy Chief Tetiana Nikitina.
