A bill that could potentially block the investigative activities of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, an independent anti-corruption watchdog, was submitted to parliament on March 19 and could be put to the vote in days.
The bill, submitted by lawmaker Nina Yuzhanina of the 135-member Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction in the Verkhovna Rada, was sent to committee for scrutiny on March 20.
Yuzhanina, head of the Verkhovna Rada’s taxation committee and Poroshenko’s former accountant, did not respond to a request for comment.
Blocking the NABU
The legislation would create a presidentially controlled National Financial Security Bureau, which will be able to investigate embezzlement of government funds under Article 191-1, overlapping with high-profile cases of the NABU, and replacing the State Fiscal Service’s notoriously corrupt tax police.
As a result, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko would have powers to take major cases away from the NABU and transfer them to the National Financial Security Bureau, helping corrupt officials escape justice, according to Zlata Simonenko, a law enforcement expert at the Reanimation Package of Reforms.
Such cases could include those against ex-People’s Front lawmaker Mykola Martynenko, Deputy Defense Minister Ihor Pavlovsky and Interior Minister Arsen Avakov’s son Oleksandr, Simonenko told the Kyiv Post.
The National Financial Security Bureau could also help top officials escape punishment by sabotaging new theft cases against them.
Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk raised concerns about the bill in an interview with Novoye Vremya magazine on March 15.
“The bill violates (the International Monetary Fund’s) principles, creating a politically dependent body that has excessive powers and overlaps with existing agencies’ functions, first of all, those of the NABU, and it’s a serious risk for the NABU,” Danylyuk told Novoye Vremya.
Lutsenko has already used his authority to take cases away from the NABU.
In November, a case on alleged corruption at the National Agency for Preventing Corruption was transferred – on the orders of Lutsenko and Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Nazar Kholodnytsky – from the independent NABU to the presidentially controlled Security Service of Ukraine, a move that critics believe to be an effort to destroy the case.
Top NAPC officials Hanna Solomatina and Oksana Divnich said in November that the agency was involved in large-scale corruption and completely controlled by the Presidential Administration. The NAPC and the Presidential Administration denied the accusations.
Meanwhile, in December pro-government lawmakers submitted a bill that would enable parliament to fire NABU chief Artem Sytnyk without an audit of his performance, eliminating the bureau’s independence. The bill was later removed from the agenda after Western criticism.
In December the Verkhovna Rada also fired Yegor Soboliev, a major defender of the NABU’s independence, from the position of chairman of parliament’s anti-corruption committee.
Other problems
Under Yuzhanina’s bill on the National Financial Security Bureau, the body will be subordinated to the president. Simonenko believes this contradicts both the IMF’s requirements and the constitution, which does not give the president such authority.
The head of the bureau will be nominated by a commission that includes three members delegated by Poroshenko, three members delegated by Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, a Poroshenko loyalist, and three members appointed by parliament, where Poroshenko has a majority. If parliament fails to delegate its members within 30 days, the president can appoint them instead of parliament.
Then the bureau’s head will be formally appointed by the president.
The bureau will also have vast powers similar to an intelligence service, according to the bill.
It will have access to the register of voters and credit histories, wiretapping powers and the authority to collect biometric data, including DNA samples and fingerprints.
Simonenko said that the bill would create another “monster” used to crack down on and extort money from businesses.
In March 2017, the Cabinet of Ministers approved an alternative bill to create the Financial Monitoring Service but it has been blocked and has not been submitted to parliament yet.
According to this bill, the service is subordinated to the Finance Ministry.
The service’s head would be appointed by a commission formed by the finance minister. The commission would include civil society representatives but the bill does not clearly establish the procedure to make sure the competition is transparent.
The cabinet’s bill meets the International Monetary Fund’s requirements to a greater extent, but could still be used to create a service for cracking down on businesses, Simonenko said.
Moreover, neither of the bills stipulates the liquidation of the existing economic departments of the National Police, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General’s Office, which are used to put pressure on businesses, according to Simonenko.
Yuzhanina claimed on March 19 that her bill would decrease the pressure on businesses.
