SAPO’s head selection process stumbled for two weeks
Two weeks ago the competition for the position of the head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office suddenly slowed down. Interviews with candidates were stopped due to the postponement of meetings of the competition commission. The real reason is that Bankova’s favorite MP Andriy Kostin was blocked by independent international experts. The new plan is to fully stop the selection process through the Kyiv District Administrative Court.
NACP ruled on the illegality of the appointment of Naftogaz’s head of board
On June 15, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention made a ruling that the appointment of Yuriy Vitrenko to the position of Naftogaz’s Head of Board contradicted the law. Vitrenko should have abstained from the management position in an energy company for at least a year after being Minister of Energy. The NACP called for the termination of Vitrenko’s contract. following the appeal of the Cabinet of Ministers. On June 18, the Kyiv District Administrative Court suspended the ruling following the appeal of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
Security Committee started consideration of the draft law on SBU reform
On June 16, the Security Committee started the consideration of the draft law on the reform of the Security Service of Ukraine before the second reading. MPs considered only 2 out of more than 2l400 amendments. This means that the draft law won’t be adopted during the ongoing plenary and its consideration will be postponed until autumn. Although, recently the G7 Ambassadors’ Support Group and Ukrainian CSO’s urged the swift adoption of the law and correction of its flaws during the committee hearings.
President vetoed harmful amendments to the e-declaration system
On June 15, President Volodymyr Zelensky vetoed draft law No.4651 which was adopted by the parliament on June 3. The law aimed at restoring imprisonment as a sanction for lying in asset declarations. However, during the plenary MPs introduced two harmful amendments that jeopardized the entire system of e-declarations. MPs canceled the responsibility for non-submission of declarations and excluded false information about assets formally owned by close relatives of officials from the scope of their responsibility.
