Yehor Sobolev: Anticorruption newsletter #14

The government of Volodymyr Groysman seamlessly transitioned from a year-long period of the Parliament’s majority support of its annual program, for the duration of which we, as MPs, didn’t have the right to initiate their resignation. In one year this government managed to introduce a more transparent mechanism for reimbursement of VAT; establish a program to compensate the cost of medicines to patients as an alternative to corrupt centralized procurement; and to promote the introduction of e-declaration of assets of all state officials, as required by the new anti-corruption legislation, adopted by us. Reforms in all other spheres, including privatization, deregulation and the introduction of transparency of pricing of utility services, promised a year ago, are apparently becoming stale, and it looks as if Groysman’s team is buckling under oligarchs’ pressure. The status quo seems to satisfy the current majority of MPs, who are dependent on Poroshenko, Rinat Akhmetov, Dmytro Firtash, Victor Pinchuk and Igor Kolomoisky and it would be impossible to garner the votes to dismiss the government at the present time. However, Volodymyr Groysman doesn’t seek the approval of the new program and, thence, immunity from the vote of no confidence for another year. In politics, the current Prime Minister appears to be a fan of the saying ‘haste makes waste’.

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