G7 Ambassadors supported IMF: Ukraine must demonstrate political will to protect NBU, NABU, SAPO and HACC

The G7 ambassadors in Ukraine said they welcomed the news from the IMF representative in Ukraine.

“The ambassadors underscored that Ukraine must demonstrate political will to protect the independence of the NBU and integrity of institutions like NABU (National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine), SAPO (Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office) and HACC (High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine) in order to ensure corruption does not erode reform progress made so far,” the G7 ambassadors noted.

According to Interfax-Ukraine, last week the IMF representative found it difficult to name the possible date of the mission for the first revision of the stand-by program and the allocation of its second tranche. Refusing to directly comment on the decision of the Constitutional Court, which called into question a number of aspects of the work of NABU, the IMF representative recalled that maintaining the independence and integrity of NABU, SAPO and HACC is a precondition for this IMF support program. According to him, discussions about the current stand-by program continue.

According to the Minister of Finance of Ukraine Serhiy Marchenko, among the issues the IMF is interest in, the highest priority is “the situation around Privatbank and Surkis” [a USD 350 million dispute concerning bail-in during the nationalization of PrivatBank – ed.]. According to the head of the Ministry of Finance, next comes the situation with the limitation of salaries for members of supervisory boards and management; bills registered in the Rada that discredit the corporate governance system; SAPO and NABU.

Recall that on June 9, the IMF approved a new 18-month stand by program for Ukraine for SDR 3.6 billion (about USD 5 billion) with the immediate allocation of first USD 2.1 billion tranche.

After the allocation of the first tranche, four program revisions were planned following the results of June, September and December of this year, as well as June 2021, with the completion of these revisions on September 1 and December 1 of this year, and on May 15 and October 15 of this year, respectively. The sizes of the second and third tranches – USD 700 million, the third – USD 560 million and the final fourth – USD 980 million. It was assumed that the online mission for the first revision of the program was scheduled for July 13-23, but this plan failed.

Other international financing of Ukraine is also tied to the IMF program. In particular, the successful first revision of the stand-by program will allow to receive already approved USD 350 million from the World Bank and EUR 600 million from the EU.

Read also: Fitch announces another IMF tranche for Ukraine.