During the recent NATO summit in Washington, President Zelensky, when asked by BBC journalists about the state of corruption in Ukraine in the context of the recent high-profile arrests of several high-ranking Ukrainian officials on corruption suspicions, replied briefly: "We are fighting."
And indeed, Ukraine is also fighting intensively against this enemy. The effects can be seen not only in these high-profile arrests (which most likely would not have happened if the fight against corruption was just an empty declaration), but also in international statistics.
In 2021, Ukraine occupied 122 1st place in the world in the Corruption Perception Index developed by Transparency International. In turn, in 2022, Ukraine was ranked in this study 116 place, while in the report for 2023 - already 104 place (source: https://www.transparency.org/en/ ).
Transparency International emphasizes that despite the low results, war-torn Ukraine is one of the few countries that in the last decade significantly improved their achievements in the fight against corruption.
This is possible thanks to the many mechanisms implemented and constantly improved by this country.
One of them was vocation Higher Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine (abbreviation of the Ukrainian name: "VAKS"). It is a court with nationwide jurisdiction, established to hear specific categories of cases related to acts of corruption. VAKS started work in September 2019.
Despite initial problems related to the number of cases, which significantly slowed down the pace of its operation, the intervention of the legislator adjusted the scope of cases falling under the jurisdiction of this court to the social needs and organizational capabilities of VAKS (p.: Act of September 18, 2019 on changes in certain legal acts of Ukraine in connection with the commencement of the work of the High Anti-Corruption Court).
Its judges are appointed solely on the basis of results open competition.
The task of the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine is to adjudicate in criminal proceedings concerning corruption and related crimes, and in civil cases concerning forfeiture for the Ukrainian State property derived from these crimes.
The Higher Anticorruption Court is a two-instance court. As a court of first instance, it consists of 27 judges: 12 of them are investigating judges (an institution unknown to the Polish legal system), while the remaining 15 constitute 5 three-person adjudicating panels (chambers). Investigating judges are entitled to exercise judicial control over the observance of the rights, freedoms and interests of persons in criminal proceedings in accordance with the procedure provided for in the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine.
VAKS in the second instance consists of 11 judges, forming 4 chambers.
Nearly five years of operation of VAKS have shown that it plays an important role in Ukraine's fight against corruption. The number of cases being recognized is constantly increasing. Among the proceedings pending before VAKS, a noticeable part concerns high-ranking politicians (such as the former Minister of Agriculture), which is the best proof of the real fight against corruption by the Ukrainian State at every level.
– Ukrainian Desk DT team
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