The draft law on liability for illicit enrichment initiated by the Head of State was the only one making it possible to punish those who were illegally lining their pockets in the last few years. It was stated by Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Ruslan Riaboshapka during a briefing on June 6.
"The draft law was approved by experts from the IMF and the World Bank. What the parliament did is politically irresponsible. It is a revenge not against President Zelenskyy, but against Ukrainians who demand justice and punishment for corrupt officials, as well as a kind of disparaging step in relation to those international institutions that help Ukraine in combating corruption," Ruslan Riaboshapka stressed, commenting on the refusal of the Verkhovna Rada to include the document on the agenda.
According to him, the draft law was prepared with the participation of the best Ukrainian and foreign experts, in particular the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The Deputy Head of the APU noted that the only motive for the people’s deputies not to consider the bill was the desire to protect themselves from possible confiscation of the illegally acquired assets. Ruslan Riaboshapka added that the Verkhovna Rada would continue to work on a number of bills on criminal liability for illicit enrichment, but Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the expert community did not support any of them.
The official noted that the legislative initiative on civilian confiscation would be brought back to the parliament, but most likely, of a new convocation.
Separately, the Deputy Head of the APU thanked the Committee on Legislative Support of the Law Enforcement Activities and 205 deputies for the support of the draft law on punishment for illicit enrichment.
"This once again shows that the President has taken the right decision to dissolve this parliament. The behavior of the Verkhovna Rada is pretty demonstrative. Unfortunately, this is the indicator of resistance mostly not to the President, but to the Ukrainian people. Since the law on illicit enrichment is needed by anticorruption bodies that would receive an effective tool to punish corrupt officials,” Ruslan Riaboshapka noted.