KIEV: Ukrainian Central Bank Governor Valeriia Gontareva is secure in her position despite a campaign by lawmakers to dismiss her, and retains the backing of President Petro Poroshenko, the deputy head of the Presidential Administration told Reuters on Monday.
Gontareva’s position has been under threat after sustained calls for her sacking by MPs who accuse her of incompetence, possible corruption and being a threat to economic security. Parliament can vote to remove her but needs Poroshenko’s backing. Gontareva faced down previous calls to resign after the hryvnia currency fell to record lows in 2015 on her watch, dragged down by political turmoil and the outbreak of a separatist war.
In an interview with Reuters, Dmytro Shymkiv attributed the renewed pressure on Gontareva to a backlash by vested interests against the central bank’s moves to clamp down on questionable lending practices, which has seen dozens of banks close. “I believe that she is safe, but of course we see political moves etcetera,” he said, adding: “that’s the position of the president: that bullying is unacceptable.” “Now we have laws that prohibit internal lending,” he said. “That’s why we have a huge group of people who used to make money that way … they are of course against the governor of the national bank.”
Shymkiv was speaking on the day after Ukraine completed a landmark reform obliging politicians and officials to disclose their assets in an online declaration form, a measure backed by the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. The reform is designed to prevent officials from amassing wealth through corruption. But declarations of vast wealth by some, including of millions of dollars in cash, expensive Swiss watches and luxury cars, came as a shock in a country where the average monthly salary is little over $200.
Shymkiv said the declarations should trigger investigations into how some people, especially those with long careers in the public sector, had become so rich. “The major achievement of this: it’s a cultural change in the behaviour of public servants and politicians. They now understand that when they purchase some of their valuable belongings, they are exposed,” he said.
