The proposal by the Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, Semen Kryvonos, to elect the Prosecutor General of Ukraine through a competition is unconstitutional and illegal. The NABU Director should ensure the investigation of criminal proceedings, not meddle in politics. This opinion was expressed in an exclusive comment to UNN by People's Deputy Serhiy Vlasenko.
During a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy, NABU Director Semen Kryvonos stated that changes should be made to Ukrainian legislation to allow the Prosecutor General to be elected through a competition.
According to Article 131-1 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the Prosecutor's Office in Ukraine is headed by the Prosecutor General, who is appointed and dismissed by the President of Ukraine with the consent of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Therefore, according to People's Deputy Serhiy Vlasenko, such a proposal by the NABU Director is unconstitutional.
The fact that Mr. Kryvonos forgot about the Constitution, they (NABU - ed.) have long forgotten about it, that's first. Second, this is not Mr. Kryvonos's business, let him deal with pre-trial investigations of high-profile cases and let him collect evidence in high-profile cases, and not meddle in politics. This is not his issue, with all due respect to him and his work. As a deputy, I will not vote for such changes to the law, because I consider it unconstitutional, illegal
According to him, the system of competitive selections introduced in Ukraine has already demonstrated its inefficiency.
"Unfortunately, the entire system of competitions that we have has proven to be absolutely ineffective and does not contribute to the selection of any worthy people. I always give an example and say that the best composition of the Constitutional Court is the first composition, which is called the "golden" one. It was elected without competitions, without international experts, and so on. And now everyone is wondering how to reach the level of decisions of the "golden" composition of the Constitutional Court," said Serhiy Vlasenko.
The deputy added that after the events related to the Verkhovna Rada's attempt to amend the legislation regarding the activities of anti-corruption bodies, NABU began to confuse the concepts of independence and lack of control.
"Unfortunately, they (anti-corruption bodies - ed.) are completely uncontrolled, and when we had this story related to changes to the law, people somewhat confused lack of control and independence. And today, he (Kryvonos - ed.) is absolutely uncontrolled and can say whatever he deems necessary and give some political advice. I imagine: in any country, the head of a law enforcement agency would come out and start telling parliament how to elect a prosecutor general - he would be out of office in 5 minutes. But here, this anti-corruption vertical, which is covered by Ukrainian activists and, unfortunately, indulged by European partners, pretending that this is some effective model, so they are unpunished, uncontrolled," said Serhiy Vlasenko.