Ukraine's anti-corruption agency on inspecting military enlistment offices: "Most act with integrity"

Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) is planning to finish inspecting military enlistment offices by the end of the current quarter – that is, by the end of September.

Source: Oleksandr Novikov, Head of the NACP, on the national 24/7 newscast

Quote from Novikov: "We expect to wrap up inspections by the end of this quarter. A total of 1,935 military enlistment officers are in management positions. We are currently checking about a tenth of those officers. As you know, we’re already seeing the early results of those checks. Next week, we will share more results."

Details: Novikov also said that the checks have revealed that "in reality, most military enlistment staff act with integrity, as does the majority of other people who work for the state".

Novikov stressed that only some officials abuse their positions. 

"Why do these abuses happen? Because if we just appoint new people instead of changing the underlying system and the rules, the outcome will always just be corruption; even if those new people have fought on the front and have seen combat, they will just get absorbed into the existing system. That’s why we have to first of all change the rules that set out how recruitment centres and border crossings operate," the NACP Head said. 

Background: 

• During a meeting of the Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief on 23 June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered to create a commission under the leadership of the First Deputy Defence Minister, General Oleksandr Pavliuk, law enforcement officials, and the National Agency of Corruption Prevention. The commission’s role is to check military enlistment officers in all regions of Ukraine, to prevent them from "discredit[ing] [Ukraine] and the memory of heroes dying at the front."
• On 8 August, Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation reported that it had opened 112 proceedings against officials from regional recruitment centres since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and 15 charges had been filed in court.
• Following the meeting of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council on 11 August, President Zelenskyy dismissed all military enlistment officers.

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