The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, voted to dismiss Yegor Soboliev, a lawmaker with the opposition 26-member Samopomich Party, as chairman of the anti-corruption committee on Dec. 7.
This was seen by many critics of the pro-presidential ruling coalition as an attempt to destroy the only institution that blocked President Petro Poroshenko’s attempts to appoint a politically pliable auditor of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine.
If a loyal auditor is appointed, reformers fear that Artem Sytnyk, the NABU leader seen as independent and effective, will be fired. A dozen members of the anti-corruption committee on Dec. 6 voted to recommend that the parliament dismiss Sobolev from his post as they were unsatisfied with his work in the committee.
Artur Gerasimov, head of the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko’s faction (138 seats in parliament) and Maksym Burbak, head of People’s Friend Party faction (81 seats) on the same day filed a draft law that would allow the Rada to control and dismiss the heads of the law enforcement agencies without an independent audit.
That is another step to clear the way to fire Sytnyk, the NABU head, seen as too independent by many Ukrainian lawmakers.
After the huge international outcry and condemnation of Ukraine’s Western partners, Gerasimov and Burbak withdrew their law. However, lawmakers found another way to undermine NABU’s independence by firing Sobolev, a fierce critic of Poroshenko’s obstructions in fighting corruption.
“Sobolev was the only person who blocked the appointment of controlled NABU auditor,” Yuriy Levchenko, an independent lawmaker, said in parliament on Dec.7.
The joint voting of Bloc of Petro Poroshenko, Peoples’ Front, Opposition Bloc gave 256 votes, a clear majority, to dismiss Sobolev.
Sobolev said that he was proud of his work. He said the committee under his leadership found and blocked more than 300 draft bills with hidden corrupt practices, created the legal basis for an institute to train detectives, defended the independence of NABU, succeeded in getting an electronic register established of public officials assets and income declaration, worked for the creation of a Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and much more.
“After firing me, they will next break the independence of NABU and create the fake anti-corruption court and then close the assets of the government officials from the public before the election” for president and parliament in 2019, Sobolev said.
The European Union asked the Ukrainian parliament to think before firing Sobolev.
“Under Sobolev’s ruling, the committee did a tremendous job, gave assistance in creating the independent anti-corruption institutions in Ukraine as well as Ukraine’s fulfillment of the visa liberalization program, connected to the fight against corruption,” European Union Ambassador to Ukraine Hugues Mingarelli told Interfax –Ukraine news agency on Dec. 6.
