Yulia Marushevska, head of Odesa Oblast’s customs office, is heading for a final showdown with her boss, State Fiscal Service head Roman Nasirov.
Nasirov and Marushevska, an ally of Odesa Oblast Governor Mikheil Saakashvili who first came into the national spotlight as an activist during the EuroMaidan Revolution, have been involved in a bitter conflict.
Nasirov, an ex-lawmaker from President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc, has threatened to fire her, while Marushevska has called for his dismissal.
The issue at stake is the future of Ukraine’s efforts to switch to corruption-free and speedy customs clearance. Odesa’s strategically located seaport has historically been one of the most corrupt ones in Ukraine.
Marushevska is seeking to eliminate corruption in customs by reducing human contact and switching to an automatic and transparent customs process. She expects to launch a new customs terminal with new personnel and more efficient software in August. Most of the new staff has already been recruited in an open competition, while law enforcement officials have been removed from the customs office to limit opportunities for graft.
Marushevska says Nasirov has been paralyzing her reform efforts by constantly inspecting her customs office and refusing to authorize changes.
Nasirov has also been accused of restoring corruption schemes linked to ex-President Viktor Yanukovych and has two undeclared apartments in London, according to documents published by activists and journalists.
Nasirov, who previously denied the accusations of corruption, did not reply to requests for comment.
“He’s being kept as a guarantor of the corrupt system’s preservation,” Marushevska told the Kyiv Post on June 23, comparing him with discredited ex-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.
Vitaly Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center’s executive board, attributed the authorities’ reluctance to dismiss Nasirov to his alleged usefulness for corrupt schemes.
“There can be no political logic behind keeping someone who has discredited himself like this in Ukraine and abroad,” he told the Kyiv Post. “This is not the logic of politics, it’s the logic of corruption.”
Marushevska lambasted Nasirov in a Facebook post published on June 21.
“You’re pursuing the same muddy water policy as your ‘brilliant’ predecessors,” she wrote in a reference to ex-customs and tax agency heads Mykola Azarov, Oleksandr Klymenko and Ihor Kaletnik. “…Why do people eager for change have to get disappointed with you every day? Why is the State Fiscal Service the leader in terms of corruption, according to all opinion polls?”
She dismissed Nasirov’s accusations that her performance had been unsatisfactory.
“Unfortunately these are not the results I was waiting for,” Nasirov said in a June 16 interview with online newspaper Livy Bereh. “There’s nothing except for a big disappointment mixed with political populism that surrounds the Odesa customs office.”
Marushevska said the average time of international transit had fallen by three times to 10 minutes during her stint at Odesa Oblast’s customs office, while the time of customs clearance of goods from 37 low-risk countries and large reliable businesses had dropped by 70 to 80 percent.
“It’s a pity that you don’t want to see the real results of Odesa’s customs office due to your political madness,” Marushevska added.
Kontyantyn Likarchuk, an ex-deputy head of the State Fiscal Service, praised Marushevska’s work.
“Out of all customs offices in Ukraine, the most positive changes have happened in Odesa Oblast,” he told the Kyiv Post. “Instead of implementing such practices at other customs offices, (Nasirov) is trying to kill them at Odesa Oblast’s customs office, which is a wrong thing to do.”
Nasirov has also accused Marushevska of failing to meet mandatory revenue plans. Marushevska told the Kyiv Post the plans were artificially inflated and dismissed them as “fraud” and a Soviet relic that should not be treated as a real performance indicator.
Earlier this month Nasirov accused Marushevska of populism and said he was giving her two months to “show results.” He said he would seek to fire her if she did not show them.
President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman have taken an ambiguous stance on the conflict.
On the one hand, they have been reluctant to fire Nasirov.
On the other hand, Groysman agreed at a meeting in Odesa in May to support Marushevska’s reform plans and to cancel the three reprimands issued for her by Nasirov.
Marushevska told the Kyiv Post that Nasirov had not complied with Groysman’s instruction to cancel the reprimands.
Marushevska and Nasirov also clashed at a teleconference in April, when Nasirov shouted at her for being late for the meeting, and she accused him of derailing her reforms.
