The new acting head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Ivan Bakanov should cancel the illegal “secret” procedure for submitting declarations by the leadership of the SBU, as well as publish their declarations. Moreover, he should submit the declaration himself.
The Anti-Corruption Action Center sent the appeal to the new head of the SBU with the request to fulfill requirements of the anti-corruption law, which obliges all public officials of the SBU to submit e-declarations.
The decree on appointment of Bakanov as the first deputy head of the SBU, was published on the President’s website on May 22. Since that time Bakanov has not yet filed his declaration as the candidate for this position.
According to journalists, the head of the SBU Vasyl Hrytsak is on vacation since May 27. And Ivan Bakanov is the acting head of the SBU.
We call on the new head not to start his work in the SBU by continuing shameful practice of concealing declarations of the leadership of the SBU from society.
In order to “declassify” declarations of the SBU’s leaders, Bakanov, as the acting head of the service, in addition to submitting his own open e-declaration, should:
- Cancel the decision of the state expert on secrets No.9/10456 as of October 20, 2016 regarding the classification as the state secret the information contained in declarations of employees of the SBU and in reports about significant changes of the property status.
- Cancel the temporary procedure for receiving and storing e-declarations of employees of the SBU, approved by the deputy head of the SBU Oleg Frolov on November 6, 2016 (it is possible that as of now there is already some other procedure for receiving and storing e-declarations).
- Obligate the head of the SBU and his deputies, as well as the rest of the leadership to submit e-declarations, as required by the law.
In addition, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) should approve the procedure for submitting declarations for “secret employees”.
According to requirements of the Law of Ukraine “On Prevention of Corruption,” e-declarations should be submitted by the head of the SBU and his deputies, heads of units of the Central Administration of the SBU and their deputies, heads of the Regional Departments of the SBU and their deputies, investigators and heads of investigation units of the SBU.
The exception is only operational employees and their directors who are directly engaged in operational or counter-intelligence work. Such employees of the SBU should submit non-public declarations in the way specified by the NACP.
We emphasize that the AntAC asks to dislose open declarations only of the leadership of the SBU whose names are known. We do not demand it from secret agents or people who fight in the East of Ukraine.
Today, the SBU illegally classified even public information about the leadership and officials of the SBU whose names and positions are well known to the public and published in official documents, for example, in the presidential decrees.
This was introduced by the SBU 10 days before the deadline for the submission of first e-declarations in 2015. The SBU decided that all their employees are “secret” and should not submit open e-declarations.
The service illegally created its so-called “own system” of submitting declarations. They set several computers, where some declarations are allegedly filed.
The classification of declarations and creation of this system were “agreed” with the NACP. However, all these actions completely contradict requirements of both Ukrainian law and international norms and practices of the European Court of Human Rights.
The classification of declarations allowed the SBU to hide information about their assets. For example, journalists found only real estate worth more than 8 million USD which belongs to Serhiy Semochko, former first deputy head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, who had earlier held senior positions in the SBU for many years.
Scandalous predecessor of Bakanov and former first deputy head of the SBU, Pavlo Demchyna avoided submission of declarations. The NABU investigated the criminal proceeding and even prepared the notice suspicion on the fact of illicit enrichment to Demchyna.
The Anti-Corruption Action Center filed the lawsuit against the SBU regarding the violation of requirements of the law. The trial process is ongoing during two and a half years. The Supreme Court agreed with arguments of the organization, but sent the case for the new round of consideration.