Ukrainian deputies refuse to investigate offshore scandal
The Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian Parliament) was not able to create a Temporary Investigative Commission to investigate the offshore account scandal as there were not enough votes in favor of the action. In order to create the commission, 226 votes were needed but only 108 deputies voted in favor of the project.
The Vidrodzhennya (Revival) party did not have any votes in favor of the project. Of the Opposition Bloc party members, only one member voted in the commission’s favor. Of the 142 members of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc party, only 21 voted for the creation of the commission. Thirteen of the 81 Narodnyi Front (People's Front) party members voted in favor of the proposal. Nineteen Radical party members voted for the project, as did 22 Samopomich (Self-Reliance) members and 14 Batkivschina (All-Ukrainian Union) members.
The document says that the Commission needs to be created to ensure both parliamentary control and an impartial and transparent investigation of the available information about the offshore companies owned by the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, the Chairman of the National Bank, Valeria Gontareva, the Minister of Finance of Ukraine, Alexander Danyluk, and other senior officials authorized to perform state functions.
It was reported earlier that the offshore Poroshenko Fund contained nearly four million Euros. In addition, in April, Poroshenko stated among other things that he intends to submit to Parliament a legislative initiative to determine the status of foreign controlled entities.