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December 8, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 4
delayed a $1.5bn tranche from its $17.5bn pro- gramme from December to the first quarter of next year and the EU has also put off a €600mn transfer due this month specifically due to the lack of progress on setting up the anti-corruption court. Moreover, in the last days the EU floated the possibility it could undo the visa-free regime introduced earlier this year for Ukrainians as that deal was based on the promise of progress with the reform.
The anti-graft efforts are currently in focus
but come on top of a raft of problems. Earlier, Ukraine and the IMF failed to agree on a new price-setting formula for domestic gas tariffs, which is crucial for the continuation of existing funding from the $17.5bn bailout agreed with the IMF in 2015. The greenlighting of pension reform and creation of a specialised anti-corruption court are among other steps that are necessary for further IMF funding.
The IMF is also negotiating with the government on the draft national budget for 2018. The Fund is monitoring the fact that the national budget meets the IMF programme goals, in particular, that the budget deficit remains within 2.5% of GDP.
Lagarde also emphasised that investigating and promptly adjudicating incidences of corruption is critical to advance these objectives and main- tain public trust. In this regard, Lagarde and
Poroshenko "agreed on the need to maintain the independence and enhance the operational ca- pacity" of NABU and SAPO.
"I assured the president that the IMF stands ready to continue to support Ukraine, along with other international partners, in the fight against corrup- tion and encouraged the authorities to accelerate the implementation of reforms that are neces- sary to further improve the prospects of Ukraine’s economy and its people," Lagarde added in the statement.
It remains to be seen if Poroshenko’s acquiesce to Lagarde’s explicit demands is anything more than lip service as even if the effort to gut NABU this week was stymied by the international outcry, Ukraine's parliament still managed to fired re- formist head of the legislative's anti-corruption committee Egor Sobolev on December 7.
A highly respected liberal, Sobolev is credited with blocking over 300 draft laws because they vehicles for corruption or catered to special interests. He has also been a rare vocal supporter and de- fender of NABU in the government. The motion
to sack Sobolev was supported by multi-partisan 256 lawmakers versus the minimum 226 votes required for a decision. Sobolev is a member of opposition Samopomich (Self-Reliance) parlia- mentary faction, created by Andriy Sadovyi, mayor of the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.