Following the bribery scandal at the ESBU, MPs call for an investigation into the legality of open cases

Another corruption scandal at the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine (ESBU), where two law enforcement officers were caught taking bribes at once, has once again raised questions about the effectiveness of the ESBU reform and the quality of its personnel. Despite the high-profile reboot and the election of new leadership with the participation of international experts, virtually at the start of the updated Bureau's work, society has received new examples of abuse among those who are supposed to fight economic crime. This raises the issue of the need to cleanse the law enforcement agency of corruption and audit their criminal proceedings for potential contract-based motives, writes UNN.

According to Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, in two separate criminal proceedings, a senior detective of the ESBU territorial department in the Kyiv region and an analyst of the Bureau's central office were exposed for using their official positions to obtain unlawful benefits.

According to the investigation, one of them demanded 15,000 dollars from a man who had previously appeared in a case involving the manufacture and sale of counterfeit money in exchange for not bringing him to criminal responsibility again. The other promised a representative of an enterprise to facilitate the issuance of a fuel storage license through his connections in the tax service for 2,000 dollars.

A system that is supposed to protect the state's economy cannot be a place for those who try to use their position for personal enrichment

People's deputies interviewed by UNN speak about the need to cleanse the Economic Security Bureau of unprofessional personnel who may be involved in corruption schemes. In particular, MP Mykhailo Tsymbaliuk is convinced that the new director of the ESBU must use his powers for a full audit of both the personnel and the activities of the agency.

There are high hopes for the new head of the ESBU (Oleksandr Tsyvinskyi – ed.), who has all the powers to check what is happening in the unit. He is a responsible, professional person with experience. I think he is capable of sorting things out in two directions. First is the personnel, because some of them (ESBU employees – ed.) are former tax police officers who did not always have professionalism or a positive image. To cleanse the agency of them, because previous leaders took the path of hiring everyone from the past with problems. And second – of course, to check, to conduct an audit of all criminal proceedings, to see if there were any contract-based, groundless violations (opening of criminal proceedings – ed.) for the sake of statistics or for blackmailing business

The parliamentarian recalled that the main goal of creating the ESBU was not to form another law enforcement body, but to protect business from illegal pressure. "The main task when the ESBU was created was to create a service agency to help and protect business. We hope that it will be exactly like that," Tsymbaliuk emphasized.

According to the MP, the fact that an analyst of the ESBU central office, who was only recently appointed to the position, was caught taking a bribe indicates that the personnel selection for the law enforcement agency was of poor quality. "It is necessary to include other criteria and use cooperation with other law enforcement agencies that would help cleanse the system. Because people still have hopes. The main thing is that these hopes are not dissolved by such facts," Tsymbaliuk underlined.

In turn, MP Heorhiy Mazurashu emphasized that corruption among law enforcement officers is particularly dangerous, as it undermines trust in state institutions in general.

"It is critically unacceptable when those hired with public funds to fight crime become accomplices to crimes themselves," he noted in a comment to UNN.

According to the MP, a mechanical reboot of the agencies is not effective in itself and does not guarantee results.

I am not sure that a reboot is an effective mechanism. When such facts occur, there should be at least serious warnings to the leaders, and if there are no changes for the better – dismissal and prosecution if there are grounds

At the same time, the deputy believes that effective channels for reporting abuses within the agency could become one of the powerful tools for fighting corruption. In addition, according to Mazurashu, it is necessary to carefully check the legality of opening individual criminal proceedings and respond to signals from business about possible abuses.

Regarding the verification of the legality of opening cases, this can be done selectively, including through appeals to the same people's deputies, with a request to facilitate a review, professional assessment, and the adoption of legal decisions regarding certain circumstances. When there is real obvious evidence, it is possible and necessary to fight selectively against the aforementioned negative phenomena

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Earlier, the chairman of the subcommittee on the organization and activity of the bar and legal aid bodies of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy, Volodymyr Vatras, emphasized that the very fact of suspicions arising regarding ESBU employees is an extremely alarming signal. In his opinion, after the exposure of Economic Security Bureau employees taking bribes, the prosecutor's office should check the activities of the ESBU much more thoroughly. The MP pointed out, in particular, the need for a revision of those cases investigated by the detectives of the Economic Security Bureau.