by Vitaliy Shabunin, originally published by Censor.net
On November 14, meeting of the Commission for competition for the position of director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau was held. The Commission approved the announcement about the start of the competition. It has been officially published on November 16, thus candidates have 21 days to apply.
We, the civil society, want to emphasize once again the importance of this competition and call on all worthy specialists to take part in it.
First of all, I want to remind you that the fight of Ukrainians against corruption has always been and will be one of the obstacles to destruction of our state by russia. These are not empty words. It is corruption, among other things, that draws us to the “russian world” of tyranny. Recall the fact how Putin in his speech on February 21, before full-scale invasion, suddenly mentioned the Ukrainian anticorruption institutions.
By the way, the first months of war showed how the network of anti-corruption agencies work in coordinated manner to transfer millions of funds to the Armed Forces. The special mechanism was developed that made it possible to transfer 340 million UAH to the army only in April-June, which the NABU exposed as bribes within the scope of investigations. The military received more than 20,000 pieces of equipment seized as part of investigation into customs abuses. Well, deposits made by suspects in corruption crimes, namely more than 100 million UAH, were transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In general, the economic effect of work of the SAPO and the NABU during the first six months of the full-scale invasion equals 1.5 billion UAH.
After all, as of now, we can talk about good teamwork in corruption cases as well. After all, the SAPO received new adequate leader, Oleksandr Klymenko. He already shows results in high-profile proceedings. For instance, only last week, 15 new suspicions were announced in the case of Akhmetov’s scheme Rotterdam+. Thus, those lawyers, who really want to strengthen the state, have the chance to join the team that really works in this direction.
I understand that for many potential candidates for the position of head of the NABU, it is the previous selection to the SAPO that may be the reason for delaying the decision to apply. Fortunately, the law provides for the decisive role of international experts in decision-making.
The procedure is as follows:
- if votes of the Commission are divided equally on certain issue (or someone abstains or does not vote), the second vote will take place.
- if it fails to gather the majority of votes, then in 24 hours the decision, that was voted for by three members of the Commission, at least two of whom are international members, will be considered adopted.
This is the fuse that will save competition from potential blockage, which the authorities can drag it into by promoting “their” candidate through “their” Commission members. On the example of the SAPO competition, we have already seen how international members helped the adequate Ukrainian members of the Commission to defend fair selection of the head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. The task of preserving integrity of the competition for independent specialists is simplified.
The commission has already approved its rules of procedure and methodology.
On November 14, a meeting of the commission for conducting a competition for the position of director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau was held. The commission approved the announcement about the start of the competition. It was already officially published on November 16, and since then the 21-day period for candidates to submit documents began.
We, the public, once again want to emphasize the importance of this competition and call on all worthy specialists to take part in it.
First of all, I want to remind you that the struggle of Ukrainians against corruption has always been and will be one of the obstacles to the destruction of our state for Russia. These are not empty words. It is corruption, among other things, that draws us to the “Russian world” of tyranny. Remember how Putin suddenly mentioned Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies in his speech on February 21 before the large-scale invasion.
The first months of the war, by the way, showed how a network of anti-corruption agencies works in a coordinated manner to transfer millions of funds to the Armed Forces. A special mechanism was developed that made it possible to transfer UAH 340 million to the army only in April-June, which NABU exposed as bribes within the scope of investigations. The military received more than 20,000 pieces of equipment seized as part of an investigation into customs abuses. Well, the military police listed the deposits made by suspects in corruption crimes – this is more than 100 million hryvnias. In general, the economic effect of the work of the SAP and NABU during the first six months of the large-scale invasion reached UAH 1.5 billion.
After all, as of now, we can talk about good teamwork in corruption cases as well. After all, SAP received a new adequate leader – Oleksandr Klymenko, who is already showing results in high-profile proceedings. For example, 15 new suspicions were recently announced in the case of Akhmet’s “Rotterdam+” scheme. So those lawyers who really want to strengthen the state now have a chance to join a team that really works in this direction.
I understand that for many potential participants in the competition for the head of NABU, it is the selection to the SAP that may be the reason for delaying the decision to apply. Fortunately, here the law provides for the decisive role of international experts in decision-making.
The scheme is as follows:
if the votes of the commission are divided equally on a certain question (or someone abstains or does not vote), a second vote will take place.
if it fails to gather the majority of votes, then in 24 hours the decision voted for by three members of the commission, two of whom are international, will be considered adopted.
This is a fuse that will save the competition from a potential quagmire, which the authorities can drag it into by promoting “their” candidate through “their” commission members. On the example of the SAP competition, we have already seen how internationals helped the adequate Ukrainian members of the commission to defend the fair election of the head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office. This will also help to save the competition from delays due to the banal reluctance of some members of the commission to appear at the meeting, as was the case in the competition for the head of the SAP. Here, the task of preserving the integrity of the competition for independent specialists is simplified.
The commission has already approved the regulations of its work, methodology and criteria for evaluating candidates. In brief the initial and absolutely objective stages of the competition will be testing of knowledge of legislation and general abilities. Based on the results of both these stages, the best 20 candidates will go to the next stages.
The best 20 candidates will perform a practical task in two blocks:
1) verification of candidates’ possession of professional practical skills and abilities;
2) verification of candidates’ organizational and leadership qualities.
Also, everyone will pass an integrity check. Those to whom questions will arise during the integrity check will also undergo a public integrity interview. Here I would like to warn against participating in the competition candidates who have problems with transparency of origin of property, reputation, political neutrality or other problems. We’ve been through it before – you won’t have a chance to successfully pass this stage of the competition, instead you’ll have to go through this procedure under public scrutiny.
The criteria for evaluating candidates for integrity are quite strict. The commission will analyze lifestyle, declarations, professional ethics, and issues of political neutrality. The components of this criteria are quite strict, but we are talking about an extremely important position, so it cannot be otherwise.
After that, the commission will evaluate the competence of the candidates during the interview, including evaluating the results of the completed practical tasks.
The competence of the candidates will be assessed in terms of knowledge of national legislation, international standards, as well as the assessment of strategic and analytical thinking, leadership and understanding of the mission and tasks of NABU, human resources management, effective personal, internal and external communication, including – for positioning NABU and its work in society.
At the end of the process, the commission must select the three best candidates based on the results of all stages. The Cabinet of Ministers must appoint one of these three to the position of Director. The law is written in such a way that the Cabinet of Ministers is obliged to do this within ten days. If this does not happen, all three candidates are presented at the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers and the future director of NABU is determined by rating voting. In this way, the law provides for all possible safeguards so that the situation does not repeat itself, as with the competition for the head of the SAPO.
And the last thing I would like to emphasize today is indisputable responsibility of every conscious Ukrainian man and woman for the victory in this war against russia. As long as independence is won in the war by enormous efforts of the Armed Forces, valuable people in the rear have no right to remain aloof from the protection of the state from the inside. The phrase “Who else but us?” applies to everyone today.