The Selection Committee for the National Anti-Corruption Bureau is still searching for a suitable candidate for its chief detective position.
The selection process for the head of the detective unit began on May 5 and was extended until July 22. This was stated in an announcement on NAB’s official website.
“It is very revealing that there is not a long queue of applicants for the country’s chief detective position, which offers a salary of more than 40,000 UAH. The most recent scandals at the General Prosecutor’s Office are not encouraging normal people to work in the new law enforcement bodies, where solidarity, protection rackets, and total corruption still operate,” explains Vitaliy Shabunin, a member of the Selection Committee for choosing candidates for NAB.
Nevertheless, the selection process is ongoing, and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau is searching for the “best of the best” for the position, as written by NAB’s First Deputy Director Hizo Uhlava on NAB’s Facebook page.
“We are not looking for any person to fill this vacancy. We are looking for the best professional to organize the work of the most important division in the Bureau,” Hizo wrote.
“There are two key individuals on which NAB’s results and activities, namely the loud investigations, successful imprisonment of corrupt officials, activity of the courts, and confiscations, rely. They are the head of the detectives and the anti-corruption prosecutor. The foundation of independence for both positions is directly spelled-out in legislation. What is left is simply finding the people who are writing in their résumés about the imprisonment, for example, of the Prosecutor General,” urges Oleksiy Hrytsenko, member of the Selection Committee, to potential applicants.
According to the members of the Selection Committee, 55 candidates applied for the head detective position with 53 being admitted for an examination. Based on the results of the testing, 22 candidates were recommended for interviews with the Selection Committee.
“The majority of the candidates invited for interviews have already worked in law enforcement bodies. This was a necessary requirement for the competition. And yet this is also a problem because the person had to work for five years in a managerial position in the current system, not necessarily focused on investigating corruption or the financial crimes of high-ranking officials.
That is, this requirement narrows the field to a circle of applicants who are specifically individuals from the former or current leadership of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the State Security Service of Ukraine, or the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” explains Daria Kaleniuk, a member of the Selection Committee.
As a result, the Committee ended up with three final candidates. Unfortunately, two do not have the appropriate investigative work experience. The third candidate currently works for Stolyarchuk in the General Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Previously, he had worked as a direct subordinate of Artem Sytnyk, the current Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. The members of NAB’s Council of Public Control did not vote on these candidates and convinced Artem Sytnyk to prolong the search,” Kaleniuk states.
As for the required qualifications, the head of the detective unit must have a law degree, ten years of experience in operational-investigative activities and/or investigative experience with five of those years in a leadership position, knowledge of Ukrainian and international law, and investigative experience of corruption crimes.
The salary for the head of detectives will amount to 43,848 UAH.