May 13, 2016

Verkhovna Rada approves Lutsenko as Ukraine’s procurator general

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Aleksandr Kosarev/UNIAN

Yuriy Lutsenko, the head of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc’s parliamentary faction, during the May 12 session at which he was approved as Ukraine’s fourth procurator general since the Euro-Maidan.

KYIV – Ukraine’s Parliament voted on May 12 to approve the president’s nomination of Yuriy Lutsenko as procurator general. He will be expected to accomplish what his three post-Euro-Maidan predecessors failed to do: prosecute and convict corrupt key state officials, both past and present.

Mr. Lutsenko’s election came after the Verkhovna Rada voted earlier that day to amend the law setting the qualifications for the country’s top prosecutor, namely, removing the requirements for a law degree and 10 years’ experience working as a prosecutor.

An electronics engineer by trade who built his career in politics, Mr. Lutsenko lacks both requirements, which are widely viewed as essential for any top prosecutorial post. Critics accused the president of leading the effort to change the law in order to place a political ally into a key post that’s supposed to be independent.

“Today we are passing a law on the procurator general because that person has the trust of the president and he wants him appointed but the law doesn’t allow for it,” National Deputy Serhiy Leshchenko of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc said on May 11 during a political talk show.

“Tomorrow we could change another law for someone from the president’s entourage just because we want to. This is savagery. It doesn’t exist in the normal world that the law is amended for one person,” he added.

The votes to amend the qualifications and approve Mr. Lutsenko’s candidacy would not have been approved based on the two factions that are supposed to form the parliamentary majority.

Only 90 percent of Poroshenko Bloc national deputies and 94 percent of People’s Front deputies supported the amended job qualifications, whereas 100 percent support is needed from both factions in order to pass any measures. Together the two factions have 225 deputies registered as of May 12 (226 votes constitute a majority in the Rada).

Instead, the Presidential Administration had to recruit the support of two deputies’ groups (parliamentary voting blocs that are smaller than factions): Renaissance, which is aligned with billionaire Igor Kolomoisky, and Will of the People, which is aligned with oligarchs of the natural gas business, according to Mr. Leshchenko, who referred to this as an “oligarch conspiracy.”

He alleged that an inspection conducted on May 11 – by the Procurator General’s Office and the Security Service of Ukraine, which are both controlled by the president – of the headquarters of Ukrhazvydobu-vannia, a state-owned gas extraction firm, was performed at the behest of the deputies of Will of the People as their reward for their recent votes in Parliament.

These deputies have been itching to regain control of the state firm ever since their managers were removed last year, Mr. Leshchenko alleged, adding that their support for Mr. Lutsenko already foretells his stance towards oligarchs breaking the law.

With the availability of such votes at the May 12 session, Mr. Lutsenko’s approval occurred at lightning speed.

Following the morning vote amending the job qualifications for the procurator general, the law was immediately signed by Parliament Chair Andriy Parubiy, followed by President Poroshenko, demonstrating just how quickly the president could get legislation enacted into law if the will is present.

Mr. Leshchenko said he even attempted to pre-empt Mr. Parubiy from signing the law by registering his own bill canceling legislation on the basis that procedure was violated, but the Internet connection necessary to register the bill happened to be cut off in the chamber where legislation is registered.

Within hours of signing the law, Mr. Poroshenko appeared in Parliament to offer his verbal endorsement of Mr. Lutsenko’s nomination as procurator general.

He said Mr. Lutsenko would not be guided by revenge and the desire to settle scores – a likely reference to his predecessor Viktor Shokin, who dismissed David Sakvarelidze as one of his final acts, and Mr. Shokin’s deputies, who pursued a criminal investigation against Vitaliy Kasko after his departure in what’s widely viewed as political persecution.

As procurator general, Mr. Shokin drew criticism from U.S. officials for resisting anti-corruption efforts and even persecuting those reformers who led them, particularly Deputy Procurators General Sakvarelidze and Kasko, both of whom were supported by the U.S. government yet are no longer employed as prosecutors.

At the same time, Mr. Shokin’s resistance to reforms and prosecution of corruption is widely believed to be the direct will of Mr. Poroshenko, as alleged by Mr. Sakvarelidze.

Mr. Lutsenko took to the Rada tribune to dismiss the morning’s controversial vote to change the job requirements, pointing out that it was prosecutors with a law degree and extensive experience who had wrongly imprisoned him under the presidential administration of Viktor Yanukovych.

He declared his intent to prosecute everyone equally before the law and said he had no plans to target anyone in particular, insisting that he had “no lists in his head” and that no revenge would occur.

Among his promises was that the Procurator General’s Office would conduct a public trial in absentia of the “Yanukovych gang.” He vowed not to use prosecutorial investigations to target or enhance business interests.

Mr. Lutsenko’s nomination received 264 votes, including 92 percent of the votes of the Poroshenko Bloc, 90 percent of the People’s Front, all of the Renaissance group and 89 percent of the Will of the People. Three deputies from the Russian-oriented Opposition Bloc also voted in favor of his nomination.

With the extreme efforts to get Mr. Lutsenko approved – which besides changing the law also involved canceling a planned presidential working visit to London and calling deputies to Parliament from abroad – Mr. Poroshenko revealed just how important it is for him to maintain control of this key government body, observers said.

“Each deputy’s vote was worth its weight in gold, and in one day they scrambled to pass all the necessary legislation,” said Petro Oleshchuk, an assistant professor of political science at Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv.

Besides political control, the president is banking on Mr. Lutsenko’s ability to conduct an initial set of anti-corruption reforms that are necessary to secure Western financial aid, including a $1.7 billion IMF loan and $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees.

Although selecting an effective and independent procurator general is a key requirement of Western institutions for further financial support, Mr. Poroshenko didn’t consult with his Western counterparts on whether Mr. Lutsenko was an adequate nomination, the Concorde Capital investment bank reported, citing its sources in the Rada.

That Mr. Lutsenko will be loyal to the president’s will – just as his predecessors were – isn’t doubted by anyone, considering that he has served as the head of the Poroshenko Bloc parliamentary faction since November 2014, as pointed out by National Deputy Yegor Soboliev from the parliamentary tribune.

“I don’t understand at all how the leader of the president’s parliamentary faction can lead the main independent body in overseeing the enforcement of the state’s laws,” Mr. Leshchenko observed.

Mr. Lutsenko himself had admitted himself that his independence as procurator general would be restricted. Towards the end of April, Mr. Lutsenko began indicating to the press that he wasn’t interested in taking the post, which he described as becoming a “decorative procurator general” considering the limited authority he would have.

He pointed to the emergence in April of the Qualifications Disciplinary Commission and Prosecutors Council, bodies that have the final authority in determining all the key appointments in the Procurator General’s Office.

Meanwhile, the legislation changing the position’s requirements also included the creation of a State Investigations Bureau, which has the authority to investigate criminal allegations filed against the highest officials of the state. The caveat is that these investigations can occur only with the procurator general’s consent.

“Even in this dubious legislative framework, the newly appointed procurator general has the possibility to return the office to the path of reform with his own decisions. But as experience has shown, the political will for that is greatly lacking,” Mr. Kasko wrote on his Facebook page the day of the Verkhovna Rada’s vote.

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