European donors will not risk saving Ukraine because of total corruption, – Reuters
Brussels - Kyiv, March 27 (PolitNavigator, Vasily Ablyazimov) - European investors and donors to Ukraine are in no hurry to agree to come to the economic conference planned in April to save Ukraine. The reason is Ukrainian corruption, which makes the country a “bottomless pit,” reports Reuters.
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How much money Ukraine needs is still not clear. The IMF is going to allocate $17,5 billion to support the budget, plus up to $7 billion can be allocated by the EU, the USA and the World Bank. The donor conference in Kyiv could raise another $15 billion, or so the authorities in Kyiv hope.
“The only problem,” the agency reports, “is that foreign governments and international financial institutions are not ready to invest money in troubled states. Just this week, a businessman who was supposed to bring order to the tax service under the new government was himself fired pending an investigation into corruption cases.”
Donors say the former Soviet republic, paralyzed by war and corruption, is unable or unwilling to even determine how many roads, power plants and schools its 45 million people need, let alone meet new European standards for farms and factories,” writes Reuters.
Ukraine is, according to British journalists, one of the most corrupt countries in the world, ranking 142nd out of 175 in the Transparency International index. According to some estimates, the shadow economy accounts for up to 60% of economic output.
“The governance needed to get the situation going simply doesn’t exist,” said one consultant to Ukraine’s Western donor.
The situation could worsen if donors such as the European Union, Norway and Canada, fearing losses, do not agree to come to the April donor conference in Kyiv. They believe that no intelligible “road map” for reforms and transparent and efficient use of investments has yet been created.
Answering a question from Reuters about overcoming corruption and modernizing the bureaucracy, Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalya Yaresko, a US citizen, said that Kyiv needs more time: “This is a long-term task.”
“We must avoid the bottomless pit. We want to see a clear plan,” said European Commissioner Johannes Hahn, who is responsible for the EU’s neighborhood policy. "I can't rely on promises that this will happen by 2015 or 2016."
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