11. Daria Kaleniuk on the anti-corruption reforms in Ukraine

Our next guest on kickback: Daria Kaleniuk (Twitter:@dkaleniuk), the executive director of the Anticorruption action centre (Twitter: @antAC_ua; website: www.antac.org.ua) The interview covers: How corruption prevented Daria from achieving change and how it inspired her to use international legal tools to tackle corruption within Ukraine. How the anti-corruption action center bridges the work between #investigativejournalism and law enforcement The way international protest helped to map and seize assets owned by former Ukrainian president Janukovic and his enabling networks Then we zero in on the period after the #Euro-Maidan revolution (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromaidan ) The interview outlines the two main pillars of institutions that were set up to tackle corruption. Pillar 1 - Transparency about assets - Electronic assets declaration - Registry of beneficial ownership of companies - New public procurement system - Anticorruption prevention commission Pillar 2 - Enforcement and sanctioning of corruption - National anti-corruption bureau - Specialised anti-corruption prosecution - High anti-corruption court The two discuss: - The successes and challenges for both pillars, touching on the problem of requiring too many public officials to declare their assets and the challenge to verify (the often poor) information declared. - The importance of selection for the success of anti-corruption institutions - How the old elite influenced the outcome of selecting heads of these anti-corruption institutions - The surprising lack of political controversy around foreign (Western) experts in the selection process, using the concrete example of the selection process of the high anticorruption court - The media campaigns including #fakenews aimed to break anti-corruption initiatives and hinder anti-corruption reform - How the new political administration in Ukraine and its commitment to the anti-corruption reforms