President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy hopes that the renewed composition of the National Anticorruption Policy Council will become a platform for a real fight against corruption in the country. He stated this during a meeting of the Council on July 18 in Kyiv.
"I hope that it will become a real communication platform for all anticorruption bodies, public, business, experts, analysts, for - all", the Head of State said. He also noted that the National Anticorruption Policy Council had not been actually working for three years, and today it is restarted. Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that the restart of this body is not only his political will, but also a real benchmark in the work of his team.
"Our top priority is overcoming corruption," he said.
The President informed the meeting participants about the steps that have been taken in the past two months to overcome corruption. According to him, during this time, 16 bills were submitted to the Verkhovna Rada, in particular on punishment for illegal enrichment, civilian confiscation of illegally acquired property, abolishing "Rotterdam+" formula, etc. Also, the international cooperation of the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine with anticorruption bodies of foreign states was unlocked as well as the e-declaration for anticorruption activists was canceled. The Supreme Anticorruption Court is preparing for its functioning.
The President also noted the positive dynamics in the activities of NABU and SAP, the active work of the State Bureau of Investigation, congratulated the successful implementation of operations to detect and seize a large batch of contraband cigarettes by the Security Service of Ukraine. The President also recalled the withdrawal of the largest drug batch by the National Police together with the US partners in recent years.
"But you know that there is still much work to do, because we have corruption on a large scale," Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized.
"We have a difficult task - to reestablish people’s credibility, create an effective system for preventing corruption, establish the principles of the rule of law, honest, integrity and truly effective social control", the President summed up.