Statement of the Anti-corruption Headquarters on the review process of the “Anti-Kolomoyskyi” draft law

On April 10, the Chairman of the Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Danilo Hetmantsev stated that the deputies would not have time to prepare the so-called "anti-Kolomoyskyi" draft law before the extraordinary plenary session of the Verkhovna Rada on Monday. As it was reported earlier, during the preparation of the bill for the second reading, deputies submitted more than 16 thousand amendments to the committee. The Anti-Corruption Headquarters is concerned that the bill review process may be delayed for months.

The adoption by the Parliament of the draft law No. 2571-d, which will amend some mechanisms of regulation of banking activity, is vital for Ukraine. Its approval is one of the conditions of the International Monetary Fund to provide macro-financial assistance to Ukraine. Given the spread of the coronavirus in our country, in the near future, the economy will go through hard times, and according to experts, the GDP growth of Ukraine in this period will slow down twice. Therefore, the help of our international partners can save the Ukrainian economy from default and the country from a long crisis.

However, delaying the consideration of amendments to the bill poses a huge risk for Ukraine to receive macro-financial assistance from the IMF. A group of deputies controlled by oligarchs, deliberately sabotage this process with the aim of delaying consideration of the bill and thus jeopardize the future of Ukraine's economy. Most of the amendments were made by deputy Anton Polyakov, who was removed from the Servants of the People faction. He alone filed more than 6,000 amendments. Viktor Bodnar, the chairman of the group "For the Future", has submitted almost 2,000 amendments. Also, deputies from the "Servant of the People", Dmitry Chorny, Olga Vasilevskaya-Smaglyuk, Oleg Dunda, Sergey Demchenko and Alexander Dubinsky, together submitted almost 8 thousand amendments.

The Anti-Corruption Headquarters urges the members of the Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy to consider the amendments to draft law No. 2571-d as soon as possible and to send it to the Verkhovna Rada for a second reading. The world economy is already in recession due to the coronavirus pandemic and Ukraine is unlikely to be able to circumvent such a fate. That is why, as civil society, we are concerned about the developments surrounding the adoption of this draft law and would like to emphasize its importance in the fate of the country.

Also, the Anti-Corruption Headquarters draws the attention of international partners and donor organizations operating in Ukraine to the problem of delaying consideration of this draft law. Such sabotage is unacceptable, jeopardizes Ukraine's cooperation with the International Monetary Fund and puts in danger the well-being of Ukrainian citizens in times of crisis.