Ukraine's Anti-Corruption Front

Meet a top three G7 priority, which is to “Enact and implement legislation on the merit-based and transparent selection of judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, including a pre-selection process based on an evaluation of the integrity and professionalism of candidates in line with Venice Commission recommendations”.

Meet a top three G7 priority, which is to “Restore the obligation of public officials (except those mobilized and directly involved in war efforts) to submit and disclose their asset declarations during Martial Law; reinstate the National Agency for Corruption Prevention (NACP) verification of asset declarations; ensure public access to asset declarations with relevant security redactions; and reinstate reporting requirements for political party financing, with relevant security redactions”.

Meet half of a top three G7 priority, which is to “Strengthen institutional independence and capabilities of the National Anti-corruption Agency of Ukraine (NABU) including through legislative and regulatory improvements by increasing the staffing cap and providing adequate financing, providing independent wiretapping capacities, and establishing a forensic examination institution at NABU”.

Meet half of a top three G7 priority, which is to “Enact legislation to improve the selection procedures for the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) head and key officials, strengthen capacity to regulate its organizational activities, including budgetary and staffing, and establish mechanisms for discipline and accountability of SAPO leadership by introducing a separate disciplinary commission and independent audit commission and aligning functions of the head and the acting head”.

Enact legislation to authorize funding for the HACC to hire at least another 24 judges plus 120 additional staffers, and to secure new premises to house this increase in personnel. Implement this by selecting the 24 judges through the PCIE vetting process.

Complete a fair, independent, and merit-based selection process for the head of ARMA. Conduct a comprehensive analysis to identify measures that would strengthen the independence and operational effectiveness of ARMA.

Enact legislation requiring all Ukrainian persons involved in reconstruction projects to use DREAM. The system must be based on structured open data using globally recognized open contracting and beneficial ownership data standards. Advance reforms for audit and internal control bodies to ensure greater institutional independence, transparency, accountability, and capacity to implement international audit standards.

Empower the PIC to play a meaningful role in judicial selection, including the selection of first instance court judges through vetting of integrity and qualifications, setting a higher standard for overruling PIC vetoes and providing full government funding and resources to support PIC operations. Enact legislation to streamline judicial selection and qualification evaluations based on clear integrity and professionalism criteria and a transparent scoring methodology. Enact legislation to strengthen the independence of the HCJ Service of Disciplinary Inspectors by ensuring merit-based and transparent recruitment of inspectors and providing adequate remuneration. Adopt clear rules, standards, and processes for investigating and adjudicating judicial misconduct and complaints and developing solutions to address case backlog.

Revise the anti-oligarch law to safeguard against political influence and require divestiture of assets until individuals no longer meet the definition of an oligarch. Strengthen the independence and professionalism of the Anti-Monopoly Committee. Implement sectoral governance reforms and other deoligarchization measures in the state anti-corruption program.

Finalize the liquidation of the DACK and enact legislation to establish a new specialized high court that will hear administrative cases against national state agencies by judges who have been properly vetted for independence, professionalism, and integrity.

The European Commission should earmark for investigative journalism 3% of all EU recovery and reconstruction funding for Ukraine. Over time, the EU Directorate-General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) should dedicate €100 million in pre-accession assistance annually to Ukrainian investigative journalism.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) should launch an initiative to help migrate ownership of Ukrainian television news channels to more modern public shareholder bases free of political and oligarchic influences and governed with independence and high editorial standards for fair and informative reporting. The European Investment Bank should support this effort by providing debt financing and helping cultivate a broad network of lenders. The European Commission should launch an aid program to deliver technical assistance and support media NGOs focused on building up this independent post-oligarchic television news ecosystem.

DG NEAR, in collaboration with the World Bank, should produce a benchmark analysis comparing Ukrainian systems of political-economic transparency and digitalization of public services to levels in EU member states.

In the upcoming EUACI renewal, the Commission should more than double its budget to at least €50 million. The bulk of the new funds should be used to train a new generation of anti-corruption foot soldiers across civil society and all entities that will be involved in reconstruction.

Allow Ukraine association in the Anti-Fraud Program, the Justice Program, and the European Judicial Training Program. Deepen partnerships between the EPPO, OLAF, and Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies through working arrangements and cooperation agreements.

Codify the current arrangement whereby the IGs of US departments and agencies that are assisting Ukraine—Defense, USAID, State, and others—share information with each other and coordinate their work through an interagency working group that reports to Congress. Designate the IG of the department or agency providing the most aid to Ukraine—currently Defense—as head of this working group.

Alongside other members of the G7 and international partners, the US should establish a Kyiv-based fusion cell of representatives from the IG, auditor, and investigator offices of US and international donor agencies funding aid in Ukraine. The fusion cell could be located on-site with NABU and operate programs dedicated to partnership with civil society watchdogs and local experts.

To formally condition non-security aid to Ukraine upon the delivery of anti-corruption reforms sought by Ukraine’s civil society and international partners, legislate the following requirement: Unless and until the State Department certifies every 90 days that the Government of Ukraine is making progress on the ten anti-corruption reforms recommended in the Ukraine section of this paper, (i) US representatives at the IFIs shall advocate and vote against any new macro-financial or reconstruction aid programs to Ukraine; (ii) the US Treasury Department shall not issue new loan guarantees to Ukraine; (iii) USAID shall not provide further direct budgetary assistance to Ukraine. This requirement should automatically escalate to a certification that Ukraine has completed these ten reforms by two dates: December 31, 2023 for the first four; September 30, 2024 for the next six. The President should be allowed to waive these certification requirements on national security grounds.

Scale up SACCI and TAPAS funding with a multi-year budgetary envelop of $100 million each (totaling $200 million), with SACCI ramping up the professionalization of anti-corruption qualifications across public and private reconstruction processes and TAPAS seeking to help Ukraine meet its digitalization ambition of becoming the world’s first paperless state.

Require US representatives at multilateral development banks and IFIs to advocate and vote for immediate and medium-term efforts to obligate donor agencies and their implementing partners to use DREAM in all reconstruction programming.

Condition recovery and reconstruction assistance upon Ukraine’s continued success in delivering anti-corruption reforms such as the top three priorities selected by the G7. The Multi-agency Donor Coordination Platform should start facilitating the process of aligning donor reform priorities.

Donors should make participation in Ukraine’s DREAM transparency system obligatory by (i) immediately including in reconstruction funding agreements a requirement that the receiving party or implementing partner use DREAM, and (ii) eventually integrating DREAM into donor agencies’ internal data systems to track procurement information.

Establish a new board comprising Ukrainian civil society experts and, as needed, outside experts to provide substantive advice to the Multi-agency Donor Coordination Platform. The platform in turn should establish a civil society liaison office.

Support the empowerment of local governments in Ukraine. Establish a new civil advisory board at the Multi-agency Donor Coordination Platform; as its first assignment, task it with making recommendations about how to elevate decentralized governance units in the recovery and reconstruction process.

Launch a new Kyiv-based fusion cell of representatives from donor agencies’ IG, auditor, and investigator offices to facilitate information sharing and collaboration, led by an official who reports to the steering committee of the Multi-agency Donor Coordination Platform.