New head of Anti-Corruption Committee sees no need for more laws

On 17 February a new Chair was elected of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Fighting Organized Crime and Corruption.  Valery Bevz, National Deputy from the Communist Party has told the newspaper Kommersant that the Committee’s focus will now be on strengthening parliamentary control over implementation of laws already adopted since, in his opinion, there are enough of them for fighting such criminal behaviour.

Bevz is 58 years old and a Lieutenant General of the Police.  From 1996 to 2003 he headed the Chernihiv and Vinnytsa Regional Departments of the Ministry of the Interior. 

Artyom Pshonka from the Party of the Regions was elected as deputy Chair of the Committee.

When distributing the leading posts in parliamentary committees in 2007, the position of Chair of the Committee on Fighting Organized Crime and Corruption went to a member of the Communist Party. The Committee had been headed by another Communist, Ihor Kaletnyk until March 2010 when the latter was appointed Head of the State Customs Service. For almost a year, Hennady Moskal (Our Ukraine – People’s Self-Defence) had served as Acting Chair.

Bevz says that under his leadership the Committee will concentrate on mandatory observance of the UN Framework Convention of 1997 which sets out 9 focuses in fighting organized crime and corruption. “The appropriate parliamentary control will also be organized over implementation of laws, including on fighting organized crime and corruption. I do not entirely agree that we do not have a sufficient legislative base for fighting corruption. 44 articles of the Criminal Code clearly set out those directions which the legislators and above all those implementing them should pay attention – that is human trafficking, drug trafficking, trafficking in weapons, theft of nuclear material, terrorism, producing counterfeit money and bribing officials. These are the priorities on which we will be working”.