"You have to take responsibility yourself": co-author of anti-corruption reform against foreign participation in forming government bodies

Oksana Syroid, who participated in creating anti-corruption legislation, spoke out against the practice of involving foreign experts in forming and running Ukrainian institutions. In her view, Ukrainians should take responsibility for the functioning of government bodies themselves, rather than placing it on representatives of other states. The former deputy chair of the Verkhovna Rada of the eighth convocation said this in an interview with the civic initiative "Holka," published on Hlavkom.

"Bringing foreign experts into the process is shirking responsibility. It’s infantilism and inferiority. Like, look, they beat me, I’m a little girl. I won’t deal with it myself — I’ll go get a ‘big uncle,’ bring him in, and he’ll hand things out for me. At some point you have to say: I’m an adult and I take responsibility for myself," Syroid said.

The former deputy speaker of parliament also warned against the idea that the foreign origin of experts guarantees their integrity.

"Don’t think that people in Europe or America are born virtuous, and ours are entirely depraved. If they could make more profit by not paying taxes, they would do it. It wasn’t the state that forbade them; they themselves, at the moment of creating the state, agreed that it’s better to pay taxes than to avoid them," she noted.

According to Syroid, Ukraine expends significant effort trying to secure the participation of foreign experts in the work of its own institutions, but such a mechanism by itself cannot change the system.

"We spend colossal effort, lobbying Europeans, Americans, the International Monetary Fund for three—admittedly very respectable—foreigners, hoping they will make us happy. But as long as these people are a foreign element, they will not change the system. Foreigners can be invited after we ourselves agree to act differently," the ex-MP explained.

Syroid links the problem to the broader question of responsibility for the work of state institutions. In her view, external participants cannot replace internal agreements on the rules by which the system should operate.

As is known, Oksana Syroid was a member of parliament in the eighth convocation and from 2014 to 2019 served as deputy chair of the Verkhovna Rada. She took part in preparing judicial reform and in the work of the Constitutional Commission, and she was also the author of the idea to create the Public Integrity Council. Currently Syroid is an officer in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and serves in the 2 corps of the National Guard of Ukraine "Khartiya."

The Public Integrity Council is an independent civic body in Ukraine that helps the High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQCJ) vet judges and judicial candidates for honesty, ethics, and the legality of the origin of their assets.