Holovatyi blasts corruption in Ukraine, announces candidacy for president (09/21/97)

Holovatyi blasts corruption in Ukraine, announces candidacy for president

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - During his last official press conference as minister of justice on July 8, Serhii Holovatyi had expressed his belief that his time as the leading justice official in Ukraine was limited. He said that as a member of government he could not talk frankly about all that he wanted. However, Mr. Holovatyi said the time would come when he would. That time was September 17 when the "free" ex-minister of justice, as he referred to himself, met with the press as an "outsider" and blasted the anti-corruption efforts of President Leonid Kuchma, accused the president's closest advisors of complicity in corruption and announced he would run for the presidency in 1999.

Mr. Holovatyi was dismissed as minister of justice on August 21 when the new prime minister, Valerii Pustovoitenko, appointed Suzanna Stanik, formerly the minister of families and youth, to the post.

At the July 8 press conference, his last as justice minister, Mr. Holovatyi had said that his efforts to implement an anti-corruption program in Ukraine were being thwarted at the highest levels of the Cabinet of Ministers and had stated that then acting Prime Minister Vasyl Durdynets was attempting to silence him and derail the anti-corruption effort.

At the September 17 news conference he went further, stating that President Kuchma had given the order to silence Mr. Holovatyi and his hawking of the "Clean Hands" program, as the effort has been dubbed.

"In June an order came from Bankivska Street [where the offices of the president are located] that I should be muzzled; that if I am shown on Ukrainian Television it should be when not speaking, and if speaking then there should be a voice-over."

Mr. Holovatyi also said the president had refused to meet with him after details of the anti-corruption program were met by Cabinet members with less than rousing approval. "Where in the world does the head of state not meet with his justice minister?" asked Mr. Holovatyi.

He said that he lost respect for President Kuchma at about the time that the "Clean Hands" program began. "I realized then that he says one thing but does another." The former justice minister said the anti-corruption effort is not a serious undertaking by the president, but merely lip service to a new policy by the World Bank that calls on countries receiving grants and credit from the financial institution to fight corruption.

"Kuchma at some meeting with World Bank President [James] Wolfensohn promised a 'Clean Hands' program. The president told him that, of course, this would be done and that it would be implemented by the minister of justice," explained Mr. Holovatyi.

"I found out that I was to lead the effort through an Interfax news release. The president called me the next day and gave me 24 hours to prepare a plan. I was to be made the fall guy, but our great team came up with a good plan anyway," he continued.

During his one-hour emotional discourse, Mr. Holovatyi also accused members of the Cabinet of Ministers of misappropriating money lent by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and alleged that Yevhen Kushnariov was complicit in a scam that the ex-justice minister discovered within his own ministry in the first days after he was appointed.

As Mr. Holovatyi explained, upon taking office, he found that his first vice minister had established a private firm through which he sold government notary blanks to notary publics throughout Kyiv. He promptly fired the deputy and was going to reorganize the firm into a government entity when he received a call from the president's Chief of Staff Kushniarov. "He told me that his daughter had an interest in the company, and that he had hoped the company could expand to include the entire Ukrainian market," said Mr. Holovatyi.

What irked Mr. Holovatyi most is that when he told President Kuchma the details, he was assured that Mr. Kushniarov would be fired. "Look, today Kushniarov is still there," said Mr. Holovatyi.

At press time, Mr. Kushnariov was not available for comment on Mr. Holovatyi's statements.

The now "free" former justice minister also announced that he is a candidate for the 1999 presidential elections, not because he necessarily wants to be president, but that he sees it as a way to expose the corrupt practices of some who might also run.

"I, as the former minister of justice who was muzzled and whose microphone was shut off, would like to ask the president and other possible candidates a few questions," said presidential candidate Holovatyi. "Maybe the answer to these questions will help us determine who is responsible for the politics going on in this country, under this president." He added, "I don't need to be president, but I want to be able to convince people whom not to vote for."

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