Corruption in Ukraine
Encyclopedia
Corruption
Corruption
Corruption usually refers to spiritual or moral impurity.Corruption may also refer to:* Corruption , an American crime film* Corruption , a British horror film...

 is a widespread and growing problem in Ukrainian
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 society. In 2011's Transparency International
Transparency International
Transparency International is a non-governmental organization that monitors and publicizes corporate and political corruption in international development. It publishes an annual Corruption Perceptions Index, a comparative listing of corruption worldwide...

 Corruption Perceptions Index
Corruption Perceptions Index
Since 1995, Transparency International publishes the Corruption Perceptions Index annually ranking countries "by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." The CPI generally defines corruption as "the misuse of public power for private...

 Ukraine slipped to the 152th place of 183 countries and territories assessed. Ukraine has slipped from the 134th place in 2010 (178 where countries investigated that year) and the 118th place in 2007 (179 countries investigated that year). United States diplomats have described Ukraine under Presidents Kuchma and Yushchenko
Yushchenko
Yushchenko is a Ukrainian surname.*Viktor Yushchenko, is the third President of Ukraine*Kateryna Yushchenko, the wife of Viktor Yushchenko...

 as a kleptocracy
Kleptocracy
Kleptocracy, alternatively cleptocracy or kleptarchy, is a form of political and government corruption where the government exists to increase the personal wealth and political power of its officials and the ruling class at the expense of the wider population, often without pretense of honest...

, according to Wikileaks cables.

Overview

Bribes are given to ensure that public services are delivered either in time or at all. Ukrainians stated they give bribes because they think it is customary and expected. Some of the biggest bribes involve more than 1 billion US$. According to a 2008 Management Systems International
Management Systems International
Management Systems International is an international development consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. and founded in 1981 by Marina Fanning and Larry Cooley....

 (MSI) sociological survey, the most corruption were found in vehicle inspection (57.5%), the police (54.2%), health care (54%), the courts (49%) and higher education (43.6%).

According to the United States Agency for International Development
United States Agency for International Development
The United States Agency for International Development is the United States federal government agency primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid. President John F. Kennedy created USAID in 1961 by executive order to implement development assistance programs in the areas...

 (USAID), the main causes of corruption in Ukraine are a weak justice system
Judicial system of Ukraine
The judicial system of Ukraine is outlined in the 1996 Constitution of Ukraine. Before this there was no notion of judicial review nor any Supreme Court since 1991's Ukrainian independence....

 and an over-controlling non-transparent government combined with business-political ties
Ukrainian oligarchs
The Ukrainian oligarchs are a group of Business oligarch that quickly appeared on the economic and political scene of Ukraine after its independence in 1991, just like it happened in neighboring post-Soviet state Russia....

 and a weak civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...

. Corruption is regularly discussed in the Ukrainian media.

Individual involvement in corruption

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, around 67% of Ukrainians who had dealt with government said that they had been directly involved in corrupt transactions. In a survey in 2010, 30–49.9% of respondents admitted paying a bribe to a service provider during the past year; in a similar survey in 2007, 18–32% of respondents admitted paying a bribe. A comparable figure for Great Britain for 2011 was 1.9%. However, in a different survey in late 2008, only 21% responded that they or anyone living in their household had paid a bribe in any form in the previous 12 months; comparable figures for the US and UK were 2% and 3% respectively. In a Gfk
Gfk
GFK is an abbreviation for:*Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung, a German market research institute*Government Fury Kills, a Canadian hardcore/metal band*Grand Forks International Airport, the airport near Grand Forks, North Dakota*Ghostface Killah, a rapper...

 survey held in the summer of 2001 43% stated they never personally had given bribes.

Political corruption

In the years after Ukrainian independence, election fraud was widespread, mainly through the use of administrative resources. Outright vote rigging diminished after the 2004 presidential election
Ukrainian presidential election, 2004
The Ukrainian presidential election, 2004 was held on October 31, November 21 and December 26, 2004. The election was the fourth presidential election to take place in Ukraine following independence from the Soviet Union...

. After this election, the Supreme Court of Ukraine
Supreme Court of Ukraine
The Supreme Court of Ukraine is the highest judicial body in the system of courts of general jurisdiction in Ukraine.The Court derives its authority from the Constitution of Ukraine, but much of its structure is outlined in legislation...

 ruled that due to the scale of the electoral fraud, it became impossible to establish the election results and ordered a revote. Although politicians still claim(ed) election fraud and administrative tricks to get more votes for a particular party have not vanished. The Ukrainian electorate remains highly skeptical about the honesty of the election process. Any voter who engages in election fraud faces a maximum sentence of two years in jail.

United States diplomats have seen the privatization
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...

 of several Ukrainian state enterprises as rigged in favor of political friends. On a regional level, corruption has been discovered in connection with land allocation.

Ukrainian politicians have regularly accused each other of corruption while claiming to fight it themselves.

Since July 1, 2011, the President, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's unicameral parliament. The speaker presides over the parliament and its procedures. They are elected by secret ballot from the parliament's deputy ranks...

, Prime Minister, Prosecutor General
Prosecutor General of Ukraine
The Prosecutor General of Ukraine heads the system of official prosecution in courts known as the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine...

, ministers
Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine
The Cabinet of Ukraine is the highest body of state executive power in Ukraine also referred to as the Government of Ukraine...

 and other Ukrainian top officials have been liable for prosecution for corruption. Kost Bondarenko (chairman of the board of the Institute of Ukrainian Politics), claims that before 2010, there was an unwritten rule in Ukrainian politics, "No charges were brought against members of the outgoing government, and their successors never had to worry about what tomorrow might bring"; but in 2010 and 2011, "criminal charges were brought against 78 members of the former government; and more than 500 criminal cases have been opened against sitting officials."

Juridical corruption

Although judicial independence
Judicial independence
Judicial Independence is the idea that the judiciary needs to be kept away from the other branches of government...

 exist in principle, in practise there is little separation of juridical and political powers
Politics of Ukraine
Politics of Ukraine take place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the Cabinet. Legislative power is vested in the parliament...

. Judges are subjected to pressure by political and business interests. Ukraine's court system is widely regarded as corrupt. A Ukrainian Justice Ministry 2009 survey revealed that only 10% of respondents trusted the nation’s court system. Less than 30% believed that it was still possible to get a fair trial. Ukrainian politicians
Politics of Ukraine
Politics of Ukraine take place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the Cabinet. Legislative power is vested in the parliament...

 and analyst have described the system of justice in Ukraine as "rotten to the core" and have complained about political pressure put on judges and corruption. Ukrainian judges have been arrested while taking bribes.

Corruption in higher education

Higher education in Ukraine
Higher education in Ukraine
Higher education in Ukraine has a long and rich history. Its students, graduates and academics have long been known and appreciated worldwide. The pioneering research of scholars working in the country’s higher education institutions and academies, such as Dmytro Mendeleyev, Mykola Zhukovsky, and...

 is plagued with bribery. 33% of all students claim they have encountered corruption in their school, 29% heard about cases of corruption from other students, while 38% have not encountered corruption. According to 2008 Transparency International research, 47.3% of university students stated that a bribe had been demanded from them; of those, 29% had paid this bribe freely. Students can buy a college entry, exam results, marking doctoral and/or master’s theses. Bribes range from US$10 to US$50 for an exam pass to several thousand for entry to a university. According to government sources, bribes vary from US$80 to US$21,500. Salaries of teachers and professors is low in Ukraine compared with other professions; this may cause them to be tempted to demand bribes.

Officials have been caught with fake university diplomas.

Corruption and business

Companies encounter corruption mainly in business licensing, taxation and customs.

Cost to society

Transparency International estimates that 30 till 50 percent of all Ukrainians have faced government corruption. Juhani Grossmann (working for an a.o. Management Systems International
Management Systems International
Management Systems International is an international development consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. and founded in 1981 by Marina Fanning and Larry Cooley....

 project) claimed in 2009 that that "Ukrainians pay roughly Hr
Ukrainian hryvnia
The hryvnia, sometimes hryvnya or grivna ; sign: ₴, code: , has been the national currency of Ukraine since September 2, 1996. The hryvnia is subdivided into 100 kopiyok. In medieval times, it was a currency of Kievan Rus'....

 3.5 billion, or more than US$400 million, in bribes annually." The previous year, he claimed that the figure was US$700 million.

Government actions

Over the years, several anti-corruption laws have been passed by the Ukrainian parliament. In September 2011 the National Anti-Corruption Committee was introduced.

After his election late 2004
Ukrainian presidential election, 2004
The Ukrainian presidential election, 2004 was held on October 31, November 21 and December 26, 2004. The election was the fourth presidential election to take place in Ukraine following independence from the Soviet Union...

 President Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a former President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005, following a period of popular unrest known as the Orange Revolution...

 promised a "War on Corruption". Several officials where indeed arrested and/or questioned early 2005 (among them later ministers in the Azarov Government
Azarov Government
The first Azarov Government was appointed on March 11, 2010 as part of the "Stability and Reform" coalition between the Party of Regions, Lytvyn Bloc and the Communist Party of Ukraine in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament...

 Borys Kolesnikov
Borys Kolesnikov
Borys Viktorovych Kolesnikov is the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine - Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine, Ukrainian politician, statesman, responsible for preparation and hosting European Football Championship in 2012 , philanthropist....

 and Yuri Boyko). According to former Security Service of Ukraine Chairman Oleksandr Turchynov
Oleksandr Turchynov
Oleksandr Valentynovych Turchynov is a Ukrainian politician, a screenwriter, a Doctor of Economic Studies. He also was acting Prime Minister after former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's government was dismissed on March 3, 2010...

 Yushchenko prevented in the summer of 2005 an investigation into allegedly fraudulent practices in the transport of Turkmen
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...

 natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...

 to Ukraine and the arrest of Boyko for abuse of office while heading Naftogaz. Turchynov claims that Yushchenko told him in mid-August 2005 to stop “persecuting my men”. A survey conducted in November 2008 showed that 73% of people in Ukraine considered the second Tymoshenko Government
Second Tymoshenko Government
The second Tymoshenko Government was appointed on December 18, 2007 as a coalition between Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko and Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense Bloc , OU-PSD is the party of then-President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko, following the 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election...

's actions against corruption to be ineffective; comparable figures for the US and the UK were 73% and 39%. In a survey in 2001, when Kuchma was President, 80% of Ukrainians "totally/fairly agreed" with the statement: "The present government has no real interest in punishing corruption".

Ukraine joined Group of States Against Corruption
Group of States Against Corruption
The Group of States against Corruption , the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption monitoring body with its Headquarters in Strasbourg ,...

 in 2006.

Just like his predecessor Yushchenko, President Viktor Yanukovych
Viktor Yanukovych
Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych is a Ukrainian politician who has been the President of Ukraine since February 2010.Yanukovych served as the Governor of Donetsk Oblast from 1997 to 2002...

 (and his Azarov Government) made the fight against corruption a spearhead in his domestic policies. In December 2010, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko
Yulia Tymoshenko
Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko , née Grigyan , born 27 November 1960, is a Ukrainian politician. She was the Prime Minister of Ukraine from 24 January to 8 September 2005, and again from 18 December 2007 to 4 March 2010. She placed third in Forbes Magazine's List of The World's 100 Most Powerful...

 and former Minister of Internal Affairs
Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine is the main body in the system of central bodies of exeecutive power that provides formation and realization of the state policy in the sphere of protection the rights and liberties of citizens, unlawful acts against the interest of society and state,...

 Yuriy Lutsenko
Yuriy Lutsenko
Yuriy Vitaliyovych Lutsenko is a Ukrainian politician and statesman and former Minister of Internal Affairs, he occupied this post in the two Cabinets of Yulia Tymoshenko and in Cabinets of Yuriy Yekhanurov, and Viktor Yanukovych...

 were charged with corruption; Tymoshenko and Lutsenko both claimed the charges were politically motivated. In the same period, Yanukovych was accused (by Ukrayinska Pravda
Ukrayinska Pravda
Ukrayinska Pravda is a popular Ukrainian internet newspaper, founded by Georgiy R. Gongadze in April, 2000...

) of corrupt schemes himself. Tymoshenko's trial started in August 2011; among national and international protest Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison on October 11, 2011 (an appeal
Appeal
An appeal is a petition for review of a case that has been decided by a court of law. The petition is made to a higher court for the purpose of overturning the lower court's decision....

 is currently pending). Kost Bondarenko, chairman of the board of the Institute of Ukrainian Politics, claims the main sponsors of President Yanukovych's Party of Regions
Party of Regions
The Party of Regions is an Ukrainian political party created on October 26, 1997 just prior to the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary elections under the name of Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine. It was reformed later in 2001 when the party united with several others...

 are unhappy about Tymoshenko being criminal charge
Criminal charge
A criminal charge is a formal accusation made by a governmental authority asserting that somebody has committed a crime. A charging document, which contains one or more criminal charges or counts, can take several forms, including:* complaint...

d "because they no longer feel above the law". Many Ukrainian people believe that that though Tymoshenko is guilty, her prosecution was political persecution.

The International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities
International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities
International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities is a non-governmental organization established as a result of the special meeting held at the UN Office in Vienna on 19–20 April 2006. Its headquarters is in Beijing, China...

 spoke of "remarkable successes in fighting corruption in 2010" in April 2011.

Corruption Perceptions Index ratings

Transparency International
Transparency International
Transparency International is a non-governmental organization that monitors and publicizes corporate and political corruption in international development. It publishes an annual Corruption Perceptions Index, a comparative listing of corruption worldwide...

 produces an annual report listing each country's Corruption Perceptions Index
Corruption Perceptions Index
Since 1995, Transparency International publishes the Corruption Perceptions Index annually ranking countries "by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." The CPI generally defines corruption as "the misuse of public power for private...

 score. This "score relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts, and ranges between 10 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt)." In the 2010 report, the least corrupt country listed was Denmark with a score of 9.3, and the most corrupt of the 178 countries listed was Somalia with a score of 1.1. The following table lists Ukraine's place in the Corruption Perceptions Index table, based on Transparency International's annual reports from 1999 onward. The methods used in assessing the Index change from year to year, so comparisons between years are difficult.
Year Ranking Corruption Perception Index Score Confidence Range Standard Deviation Surveys Used Source
1998 69 of 85 2.8 1.6 6
1999 75 of 99 2.6 1.4 10
2001 83 of 91 2.1 1.1 6
2002 85 of 102 2.4 0.7 6
2003 106 of 133 2.3 0.6 10
2004 122 of 146 2.2 2.0–2.4 10
2005 107 of 158 2.6 2.4–2.8 8
2006 99 of 163 2.8 2.5–3.0 6
2007 118 of 179 2.7 2.4–3.0 7
2008 134 of 180 2.5 2.0–2.8 8
2009 146 of 180 2.2 2.0–2.6 8
2010 134 of 178 2.4 2.1–2.6 8
2011 152 of 183 2.3 2.1–2.5 10


Note: For 1999 and 2000, the data were listed as 1998 and 1999 respectively. From 2001, the data listed were stated to be for the year of the annual report. Up to 2005, the annual report included some measures of the uncertainty of the index scores; these data were omitted from the annual reports from 2006 onwards, but were contained in the CPI report.

Public Perception of Corruption in Institutions of Ukraine

The following table shows average scores from a survey of public perception of corruption in Ukraine's institutions. Comparable figures for the United Kingdom and the USA for 2009 are shown at the bottom of the table.
Year Political Parties Parliament Police Business/ Private Sector Media Public Officials/ Civil Servants Judiciary NGOs Religious Bodies Military Education System Source
2007 4.1 4.1 4.1 3.9 3.2 4.2 3.2 2.3 3.1 3.8
2009 4.4 4.5 4.3 3.8 4.5 4.5
2010 4.0 4.1 4.3 3.7 3.2 4.1 4.4 3.2 2.3 3.5 4.0
2009 UK 3.6 3.3 3.5 3.5 3.2 2.8
2009 USA 4.0 3.9 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.2
Question: To what extent do you perceive the following institutions in this country to be affected by corruption? (1: not at all corrupt, 5: extremely corrupt).

External links

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