By KYIV. Dec 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The impossibility of completely eradicating corruption as a phenomenon in Ukraine is generally noted by the leaders of the country’s anti-corruption bodies, but they emphasize a real possibility of eliminating the preconditions for corruption crimes and the inevitability of punishment of top officials.
“Our mission is to build a modern Ukrainian state, free from corruption… We have set priorities in our activities and… we are focusing specifically on current official corruption,” Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Semen Kryvonos said at the Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Forum “Integrity is the future of the Ukrainian statehood” held in Kyiv on Tuesday.
According to him, it is necessary to eliminate the preconditions for the emergence of corruption in agencies where it is a natural phenomenon.
“We definitely won’t overcome all corruption, we definitely won’t cover all areas… But we have definitely demonstrated and will continue to demonstrate that no one is inviolable… And I would like to see top officials with real sentences,” the NABU director said.
“Unfortunately, it [corruption] will not go away. There is no way to completely overcome corruption yet – not a single country has dealt with it…. But we can make corruption in the life of every Ukrainian the exception rather than the rule,” Chief of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office Oleksandr Klymenko said.
He said that currently prosecutors in their investigations see that corruption is the rule. “Some authorities even have appropriate price lists for certain corrupt services. Our main common goal is for this to be an exception in the future in Ukraine,” Klymenko said.
