Anti-Corruption Will Always Face Resistance from Authorities
Fighting against corruption, like fighting against any phenomenon that is a consequence of something, such as poverty or lack of education, will always inevitably encounter resistance from those who are at the root of this problem. We understand that if the legislators elected in 2014 cannot explain the origin of their wealth but have to do it, even when they have all the powers and can block certain steps of law enforcement agencies, they will block those steps.
No Public Control Over Justice
The problem is that, if we focus on corruption as a consequence, we fail to balance a few basic things, we have not done the reform of the judiciary, we have not rebooted the system to make it accountable to the public. We have deprived the authorities of the possibility to pressure the court, or so we think – not completely, as the practice shows – but at the same time, the reboot itself did not take into account public control as the indispensable element, which resulted in an incomplete reboot.
It Was a Mistake to Listen to the West about the Judicial Reform
We made a mistake listening to our international partners, because they sincerely believe that if political ties are cut, for instance, if the judges are not appointed by the President, judges will not feel dependent on politicians and will act more ethically. But you cannot let wolves choose the shepherd. They will select the weakest one or somebody from their own pack and just break the herd down into parts. In this case, what happened was that judges who would theoretically have to go through the competitive process just reelected themselves. The reason why old judges with questionable integrity remain is that they were elected by the same kind of judges.
Source: www.nrcu.gov.ua
