Greg Krasovsky: If Ukraine's foreign benefactors and well-wishers want to help reduce corruption in Ukraine, then the only way to do so is to stop turning a blind eye on corrupt politicians who are loyal to you.
Russia ignored the corruption of President Kuchma and Yanukovich's regime because he was considered pro-Russian.
The U.S. and its allies have ignored the corruption in the administrations and governments of Presidents Yuschenko and Poroshenko because they are pro-U.S.
The result? Continued raiding of the Ukrainian government budget by politicians who know that their indiscretions will be overlooked abroad by their supporters.
Playing musical chairs with Ukraine's government and cabinet of ministers will not help unless these folks are afraid of being detained and prosecuted abroad and their foreign assets (bank accounts, businesses and real estate) frozen.
But as long as these corrupt, albeit pro-US/EU/NATO politicians know that the United States and its allies will prefer their corruption to neutral or, heaven forbid, pro-Russian politicians, then you won't be able to tear them away from the Ukrainian state budget feeding troth - just like pigs.
In the meantime, ordinary Ukrainians remain poor and powerless.
Selected excerpts:
"Over the past 25 years, Western donors have funneled billions of dollars into post-communist Ukraine, with two main goals: helping the country build a self-sustaining, competitive market economy, and laying the legal and regulatory groundwork for a law-governed state.
April 14 saw the appointment of yet another government dominated by insiders from Ukraine’s discredited post-communist establishment. This ended a political crisis sparked in February when Aivaras Abromavičius, the respected minister of the economy, resigned over persistent graft among his underlings.
Abromavičius’s resignation was just the latest confirmation that the hopes that accompanied the EuroMaidan movement of 2014 have crashed on the rocks of renewed asset-grabbing (see here, here and here). The gains from modest successes in economic reform have been washed out by impunity at the top along with a lack of progress in civil service reform and movement toward a law-based state.
These developments prompt the question: Can Western aid actually support the cause of reform in Ukraine? Or is Western assistance enabling an entrenched elite to continue stealing and avoid building a functioning state?
...
Ukraine’s elites deploy the courts and police to raid companies they covet. Extortion, not public service, is the primary activity of state regulatory agencies. Even more damaging is the plundering of state assets. To be sure, the current government ended the practice by which private intermediaries reaped illicit billions from the exploitation of gas subsidies — at least for now. A previous government eliminated such intermediaries in 2009 only for the scheme to return under the next administration.
The looting of state-owned companies by oligarchs and state officials, including figures close to the president and former prime minister, remains very much alive (see here and here). Privatizing these enterprises is no solution; if history is any guide, they will be sold to government cronies for a song (seehere, here and here). Tax and customs fraud along with myriad subsidies have further enriched powerful insiders, hollowing out the state in the process.
Ukraine’s leaders might have constructed effective state institutions capable of preventing such plundering and fostered a market economy that can maximize tax revenue. But their virtually unlimited access to Western assistance has freed them from the need to do so. It has also heightened their interest in maintaining the status quo.
...
How to make sure that the aid will not continue enabling Ukraine’s acquisitive elite? How to ensure that the results will be different this time around? These questions rightly occupy the attention of the donor community.
Ukraine’s benefactors face two options. The first is to resume assistance in the event that the new government puts forward a reform plan and passes some legislation recommended by donors. This is the approach the West has followed in the past.
The other option is to refrain from resuming aid until the coming to power of a truly new leadership that excludes most people with previous high-level government experience..."
Please read rest of the Article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/05/05/how-western-aid-enables-graft-addiction-in-ukraine/Don't forget to check out our Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/
