NABU should be disbanded due to high costs for its activities with extremely low efficiency, failures in work, protracted investigations, manipulations with expert examinations, and systemic corruption scandals involving detectives. This opinion was expressed by political expert Oleh Posternak, as reported by UNN.
"High expenditures with low returns multiplied by the professional inefficiency of detectives, along with lack of initiative, questionable expert opinions, and corruption scandals involving employees. All this is today's NABU. And it needs radical measures. The first step is to disband the Bureau and create a new anti-corruption system of work. Otherwise, nothing will work," Posternak emphasized.
He explained, based on facts, why NABU should be disbanded. Firstly, due to low economic efficiency.
"Over 10 years of the Bureau's existence, the state has spent over UAH 10 billion on it. Meanwhile, the total amount of recoveries based on court decisions in cases handled by NABU in 2015–2025 is +/- UAH 800 million. That is, for every 1 hryvnia returned to the country's budget, NABU spent... 12 (!) hryvnias! Impressive 'efficiency'," the expert was outraged.
Secondly, he emphasized the low productivity of detectives.
"Last year, NABU initiated 669 criminal proceedings, which amounts to 2-3 proceedings per detective. For comparison, one SBI investigator simultaneously investigates from 300 to 1000. At the same time, only 30% of suspects in cases handled by NABU detectives are representatives of the authorities or officials. Therefore, Transparency International Ukraine, in its report on 10 years of the Bureau's work, strongly advises optimizing resource use: focusing on top-corruption cases and those related to systemic corruption," the expert's post states.
In addition, NABU lacks initiative and delays investigations, Posternak reported.
"Most of the meager number of cases investigated by the Bureau are not initiated by it – as a rule, they are transferred from other bodies (SBI, National Police, etc.). And in general, 77% of all corruption crimes in the state are investigated by the National Police. NABU detectives are famous for high-profile exposures of high-ranking officials, but to bring their 'exposure' to a verdict, they often lack even ten years," he emphasized.
The expert drew attention to questionable expert opinions that led to the collapse of high-profile cases, including "Rotterdam+" or Omelian's case.
"This refers, for example, to the 'International Expert Legal Group', from which an expert opinion on the market value of land plots was ordered. However, the KVEDs (types of economic activity) under which it is registered do not provide for such an expert opinion. Even astrological and spiritual activities (and this is not a joke!) – they do provide for, but not the expert opinion on land value," he said.
He also reminded that all NABU activities are accompanied by constant scandals involving detectives. This includes suspicious deals with elite apartments, which are registered and re-registered to relatives and declared at an underestimated price, VIP cars with similarly underestimated prices, crypto manipulations, covering up relatives from prison and concealing their Russian citizenship, and systemic corruption.
Thus, in his opinion, the disbandment of NABU is an opportunity to save funds for the army.
"Ukraine constantly needs money to finance the army. To have more, we can either cut some expenses or raise taxes. It is clear that none of us want tax increases, especially in these difficult times. What remains is cutting expenses – at the expense of inefficient structures that are currently devouring billions from the budget. And the first contender for this is NABU, whose inefficiency is already obvious even to international experts," Posternak concluded.