The National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption is interviewing NABU detectives as part of a probe into the conflict of interest in the actions of the bureau's director, Semen Kryvonos, following a statement by his former first deputy, Gizo Uglava. In an interview with “Dzerkalo Tyzhnia”, Kryvonos assured that there was no conflict of interest.
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Gizo Uglava, while still a top NABU official, filed a report with the NAPC about possible violations of anti-corruption legislation by the bureau's head, Semen Kryvonos, and became a whistleblower. According to him, Kryvonos pressured him to resign.
The NABU Director confirmed that the NACP was checking the conflict of interest in his actions based on the Head's statement, but assured that “there was no conflict and there could not be.
I do not have any private interest. I am the head of an institution with the authority to order an internal investigation, to agree or disagree with the conclusions of the disciplinary commission, and to make my own decision on the level of disciplinary action. I hire people and I fire them. And in this case, I exercised my powers as a director
According to him, he perceives the NACP inspection as a procedure prescribed by law to respond to such allegations.
“The Agency's specialists have started monitoring, they know how and on what basis to conduct it. In any case, the institution must do its job and give a conclusion if it has already decided to take the case for consideration. Another question: did the NACP have grounds for this? Does the NACP strictly follow the procedure and legislation? Can Uglava even receive the status of a whistleblower if he filed a statement about a manager's conflict of interest only after the completion of an internal investigation, and not before? However, as the head of another institution, it would be incorrect for me to give my answers and evaluate the work of my colleagues from the Anti-Corruption Unit. Moreover, at a time when there is no final decision,” said the NABU director.
He also said that the NACP is interviewing NABU detectives as part of its investigation.
“I do not interfere in the process and do not ask NABU employees what they talk about at the NACP when they are invited to meetings. But I know for sure that during the official and disciplinary investigations, all the facts of pressure from the first deputy were objectively assessed. Quite a few employees testified in this regard. And, in my opinion, the facts recorded in the case were sufficient to assess them. However, there is only one thing to worry about in this situation: the decision made by the NACP must be legal. This is very important for both institutions and their further cooperation,” added Kryvonos.
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Gizo Uglava worked at the NABU as the first deputy director since the establishment of this anti-corruption body. He was dismissed from the bureau on September 3, 2024, with the official reason being a violation of the oath of office and rules of ethical behavior. However, Uglava filed a lawsuit with the court demanding that the order on his dismissal be recognized as illegal.
It is worth noting that a few months before his dismissal, he managed to make a number of high-profile statementsthat exposed potential problems in the management and investigation processes of anti-corruption detectives.
Chapter accused the NABU leadership, in particular Director Semen Kryvonos, of pressure to force him to resign.
The then-deputy director of the NABU has repeatedly hinted that decisions in the bureau are made under the influence of external factors, not on the basis of the law. Among the individuals and institutions that he believed exerted this pressure were activists of the Anti-Corruption Action Center (AntAC) and the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy, who, as Uglava noted, had previously worked for the AntAC.