The foreign word trend has led to some of us using them almost every day without fully comprehending their actual meaning. The terrible word “corruption” is one of them. In the past, when we would hear the phrase “taking advantage of a bureaucratic position to serve one’s own interests,” we understood what that meant. Now, when we hear the word “corruption,” some of us picture an oligarch with bags of greenbacks; others imagine a ranking bureaucrat with a small official salary but the latest Mercedes and a “small house” occupying several hectares, and a sizable bank account, etc.
In order to ascertain the meaning of this terrible word, you don’t even have to look it up in a dictionary because there is a law in Ukraine aimed at combating corruption, which contains a legally precise definition of this activity. Article 1 reads that “corruption is understood as the activities of persons authorized to discharge state functions, which are aimed at unlawfully using powers vested in them to obtain material benefits, services, preferences, or other advantages.”
It turns out that corruption is not just about receiving unexpected additional rewards in envelopes or briefcases, or buying candle factories in return for token money. This notion is considerably broader and is specifically envisaged by the law. I am placing special emphasis on the latter aspect because my personal observations have nothing to do with receiving material benefits. Even though I honestly cannot imagine how a sum of 350 million dollars, let alone several billions, can be earned in good faith in a country where most citizens are not well off or impoverished, my principled stand is that only a court of law should determine whether any sum has been obtained legally or not.
As for acts that do not entail criminal prosecution but which violate current laws, I would like to voice my opinion regardless of specific events and/or persons.
In my opinion, combining civil service with a seat in parliament falls under Ukraine’s law against corruption. A civil servant who retains his parliamentary status secures immunity against criminal prosecution. This is not envisaged by the law and is an additional advantage compared to other civil servants.
When a civil servant travels across the city giving press conferences as a private individual, during his work hours, this is also a kind of additional advantage. Civil servants are entitled to press conferences and there are set procedures. However, there is no law saying that a civil servant, as an individual, can show his credentials and barge in on a press conference and make it part of his own campaign. There is no law that allows a public servant to act this way; this means that this is a perk not covered by the law.
We have heard countless declarations by various parliamentarians concerning certain members of the Verkhovna Rada being pressured by people in the executive branch. This phenomenon must be so widespread that some high-ranking bureaucrats no longer consider this an unlawful practice. They publicly admit that they have called some members of parliament taking part in rallies to tell them it would be best for them to leave at once. Pressure? This isn’t pressure; just a piece of friendly advice. According to Article 5 of Ukraine’s anticorruption law, a public servant has no right to “unlawfully interfere, while acting in his official capacity, in the activities of other state bodies or officials acting in the line of duty.” A member of parliament is a representative of the people and the executive branch, so he can decide which rally to attend and which stand to take. Incidentally, Article 16 of Ukraine’s law on civil service clearly indicates that “a public servant has no right to commit acts envisaged by Articles 1 and 5 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On the Struggle against Corruption.’”
None of the above is my attempt to accuse anyone of any wrongdoings — or to try to help lift such accusations. Public service is a domain where no trifles can be ignored, so that everyone, after swearing the Public Servant’s Oath (“Aware of my own special responsibility, I do solemnly swear to faithfully serve the public and the people of Ukraine, to unswervingly observe the Constitution of Ukraine and the laws of Ukraine, help implement them, protect the rights, freedoms, and lawful interests of citizens, conscientiously carry out my official duty...”), must remember his special responsibility every single day.
