President Petro Poroshenko and his appointees Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and Prosecutor General Yurij Lutsenko are further maneuvering between the demands of the active society to put an end to the high-rank officials' corruption and their personal interests in it. The latter push the top tier officials to block even those reforms that began after Euromaidan.

President maintained decisive influence on appointing the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission. When adopting the Law on this Commission my Samopomich party with support of reformist MPs from other factions suggested to limit this influence, but with votes of faction of Petro Poroshenko Bloc, "Narodniy Front", "Opposition block" and two other wreckages of the party of Victor Yanukovych — groups "Volya narodu" and "Vidrodzhennya" — the law was adopted in an advantageous for Petro Poroshenko version. Also President through his representative in Parliament moves forward a draft law which grants him the right, on his own discretion, avoiding all the procedures stated in the new Law On state service, to appoint the heads of local administrations. 

Prime Minister, who is in office for over 6 months, shows no will to begin the process of transparent privatization despite all the encouragement from foreign advisers of Government Leszek Balcerowicz and Ivan Miklos.

General Prosecutor, through MPs of the Presidential faction, which he headed before his appointment as GP, is initiating the return of the right to determine the jurisdiction of criminal proceedings. In fact this is a strike on independence of the Anticorruption Prosecution and the Anticorruption Bureau, which were created specifically as an alternative to corrupt General Prosecution, Security Service and  Ministry of Internal affairs.

Such policy provokes subsequent disappointment of electorate and further growth of popularity of Yuliya Tymoshenko, "Opposition block" and Oleh Lyashko, who exploit populist slogans skillfully. Another consequence of preservation of kleptocracy is subsequent radicalization of veterans, who return from war with Russia.

In these conditions the task for the decent Ukrainian public officials, civil activists and key international partners is to increase the pressure on President and Prime Minister to block all the harmful decisions and to ensure taking reformative steps.

The dream of many Ukrainians to get a visa free regime with EU remains a powerful lever for such pressure.

Not a single case of high level corruption, opened after Euromaidan by General Prosecution, Security Srvice and Interior Ministry, was brought to verdict.

At the same time the Anticorruption Bureau, which started investigation in December of 2015, has already brought 30 cases to court. One third of the cases are against judges, and a stand-out case against Head Prosecutor in the war zone Kostyantyn Kulyk, who has set a precedent in Ukraine’s history in being charged with illegal enrichment. From 2015 the obligation to prove their assets' legality was placed upon public officials.

During September Parliament dismissed 926 judges. Most of them (892) filed a resignation themselves. The reason of mass resignation of judges is their unreadiness to publicly declare property of their families; take part in the open competitions through which all judges must be selected. An important argument for part of such judges is also the renewal by the Constitutional court of lifelong payments to every judge, nearly thousand dollars monthly.

Furthermore, on 30th September the immunity of judges has been limited. Now they can be detained at the crime scene. It is a good part of the amendments to the Constitution initiated by the President that were introduced this summer and came into force September 30th. On 7th October the detectives of the Anticorruption bureau detained Dnipr district court judge during the receipt of a $10 000 bribe.

29 judges were dismissed under provisions of lustration law for their established violation of the oath when taking decisions on arrests of the protesters and prohibition of the right to protest during Euromaidan. One of the lustrated is judge Victor Tatkov, who was the Head of the High economic court in the days of Yanukovych. The level of corruption in this court was a horrible legend for Ukrainian business.

On 14th September we held a special session of our Parliamentary Committee on Corruption Prevention to address a two years' delay in investigations of statements of two judges who reported pressure on them by the Chairmen of their courts. After this hearing the High Qualification Comission of Judges has started a case against the Chairman of the Appeal court of the Tcherkasy region Volodymyr Babenko.

1st September was launched the system of electronic asset declarations for judges, high profile officials, Members of Parliament and the President. For the first time, information regarding cash and luxuries – the most popular assets among top-level corrupt officials – must be declared. For the first time, conscious misinformation in declarations that exceeds $13 250 is to be prosecuted as criminal offence.

Absolute majority of high profile officials in Ukraine are against the implementation of this Law, adopted in 2014 after the Euromaidan victory. The Law was supposed to enter into force in the beginning of this year. But in December 2015 and February 2016 the introduction of law was derailed, first time with amendments by MP Andriy Derkach (former ally of Victor Yanukovych) and second time with amendments by MP Vadym Denysenko from the Presidential faction. With the public uproar, help of the European Union and USA, and assistance from our Parliamentary Committee on Corruption Prevention and Counteraction, the legislation was restored, and by 30th October high-level officials must submit e-declarations for 2015.    

Large sabotage is in action even today. Created by the government of Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a year behind the scheduled time and with manipulation when electing its Head, the National agency on Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) is now unable to ensure a proper functioning of the web-site with e-declarations. Its interface is not in line with the legislation, the data is incorrectly stored or gets lost, there is also a fact of intentional falsification of declaration of one of the members of the Agency. Together with civil activists we demand that police investigates this falsification. We have also held three special meetings of our Committee on Corruption Prevention and Counteraction, to get the newly formed Agency to correct the problems.   

From among 50 thousand declarations to be submitted only 7 thousands are complete. Many hope that this legislation will be once more shut-down at the last moment. From the beginning of September three bills were registered in the Parliament. MP from «Narodniy Front» Tetyana Donets proposes to automatically publish property of officials from the registers of property instead of filling out the e-decalration themselves. MP from Petro Poroshenko Bloc, who now represents the party «Democratic alliance», Mustafa Nayem offered to consider family members, whose assets must also be declared, only those people with whom the official has spent 31st December or 183 days during the year. The leader of presidential faction in Parliament, Ihor Gryniv suggested not to publish information on cash and luxuries. Another representative of presidential faction, who chairs the Parliamentary Tax committee, Nina Yuzhanina told about the initiative to pass a law that would allow anyone who declares his assets and pay 5% of its cost to be released from duty to prove its legality.

As a Chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Corruption Prevention and Counteraction, I appealed to the authors of all initiatives with a request not to initiate changes now, but to set them aside until winter. By then all e-declarations will be submitted, the first investigations on violations of the Law will begin, and we will be able to better understand, whether anything should be changes in the Law. After media raised a storm of criticism, MPs Nayem and Gryniv have withdrawn their draft laws, MP Yuzhanina agreed to create a working group with the representatives of her's and my Committees to work on a draft law, which would allow tax amnesty without destroying the anticorruption legislation. MP Donets has refused to withdraw her draft law. Our committee acknowledged the bill as corruptogenic and recommended the Parliament not to vote for it.

It is very important, that the key international partners of Ukraine further supported the requirement of civil society of Ukraine - all public officials must make public and prove the legality of origin of their property.

For the first time in many years the draft Law On the State budget of Ukraine in 2017 was presented by the Cabinet of Volodymyr Groysman in September, as required by legislation. It gives a lot more time for consideration of budget, which is usually voted for "blindly".

Adopted in 2015, Law On transparent use of public funds is being implemented as of 1st October only by 46% of managers of budgetary funds. Others are not even registered on the web-site where Law requires to publish every payment made at the expense of taxpayers.

On September 5th Prosecutor General Yurij Lutsenko appointed Oleh Valendyuk, who is subject to lustration according to the Law On Government cleansing, as the first deputy prosecutor AR of Crimea. Until this appointment Valendyuk was illegally holding the position of Kyiv prosecutor.

According to the database of the Civic Lustration Committee 2 641 high profile officials of Yanukovych times are subject to lustration according to the Law On Government Cleansing. Most of them have resigned, though certain officials still hold their positions in violation of the Law which is the result of sabotage of the Law by Presidential Administration, State Fiscal Service, General Prosecutor’s Office and Security Service of Ukraine.

The speaker of the Parliament Andriy Parubiy refuses to put on vote our draft law registered in Parliament in 2015, that incorporates recommendations of the Venice Commission to legislation on lustration. To my requests he answers that there are not enough votes. This draft law would also oblige candidates on the future Presidential and Parliamentary elections to reveal to the voters, whether they meet the requirements of Law On Government Cleansing.

The Ministry of Finance presented ideas that call to decrease abuses in the administration of taxes. In particular, on transparent electronic line for returning value-added tax to exporters. Similar ideas of members of the Parliamentary Tax Committee were not supported last year. 

Already 184 communities in Ukraine have united in a way this gives a chance to viability and greater financial independence. Most united communities have been created in Ternopil (26), Khmel'nickiy – 22, Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk regions – 16. The least – in Sumska and Khersonska regions – just one in each.