Parliament on Oct. 19 approved the second reading of a bill to strengthen the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU).
If signed by the president, the legislation would turn the NABU from a law enforcement agency into a central executive body with a special status, without reshuffling any staff. The president would also lose the power to appoint and dismiss the bureau’s head.
The NABU director would be hired through a competition conducted by a six-member committee. The Cabinet of Ministers would directly delegate three members; the remainder would be proposed to the Cabinet by international organizations.
While the Cabinet of Ministers would oversee the NABU’s work, it could not undo its acts. The bureau would be exempt from the Cabinet’s usual requirements for staff of central executive bodies.
A total of 308 lawmakers supported the law in the second reading, with 12 opposed and 23 abstaining.
The bill is meant to make the NABU wholly consistent with the constitution and strengthen it against political meddling. The bureau’s independence has been requested by the International Monetary Fund, which is close to resuming lending to Ukraine under an existing $5 billion arrangement.
President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the passage of the bill on Oct. 19, calling it an “important step towards the stable work of the anti-corruption infrastructure.”
The European Union’s ambassador to Ukraine, Matti Maasikas, also called the bill’s passage a “positive step.”
The NABU’s head, Artem Sytnyk, has been under fire from the Constitutional Court and the Cabinet of Ministers, which has sought to get rid of him before his authority expires in 2022.
The Constitutional Court declared Sytnyk’s appointment unconstitutional in August 2020.
The Cabinet submitted a bill in March to dismiss Sytnyk and allow President Volodymyr Zelensky to control the selection of a new chief. Anti-corruption activists saw it as an attempt by the corrupt establishment to destroy the NABU’s independence.
