24 October 2014
Ukraine is going to polls on Sunday. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has made anti-corruption drive as his main mandate in the coming election. He claims that corruption is ruining the economy of Ukraine.
He said the corruption is high in customs, police, Public Prosecutor’s office and Security Agency (SBU). He sent some of his aides to a major market in the region and they found that not a single cargo had been properly cleared through customs.
Parliament passed sweeping anti-corruption laws earlier this month. He said that these laws will help in reducing bribery, kickbacks, smuggling and other crimes that flourished under his predecessor Yanukovich.
Poroshenko has singled out customs and also high ranking officers. Corrupt politicians lead the way for public service corruption. Poroshenko should start at cabinet level and then departmental heads and then go down to bottom. It is the high level corruption that hurts the economy. Because it is often in the millions compared to a policeman taking bribe of $20 is not going to hurt the economy. This does not mean that corruption in police and customs is to be condoned. Once you clean up the top level then lower ranks will automatically clean themselves up.