NABU and SAPO again lack reforms and funds for effective work - audit

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine lacks reforms and funds to demonstrate good results in investigations. This conclusion was reached by international auditors, UNN reports.

As noted, the NABU's effectiveness depends on the institutional capacity of the SAPO and the HACC, which need to be strengthened.

In their report, international experts point out that NABU's relations with the SAPO have significantly improved after the appointment of the new head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.

However, this is not enough to improve the performance of the NABU, and therefore the auditors recommend updating the Memorandum between the SAPO and the NABU to strengthen its provisions and holding regular joint meetings of the NABU, the SAPO and the HACC to discuss common approaches to qualifying crimes, applying preventive measures in criminal proceedings, implementing an electronic case management system (e-case management) and other issues of cooperation.

"NABU is weakened due to the lack of independent status and operational autonomy of the SAPO, which needs to be changed by amending the legislation," the report says.

In particular, the auditors believe that it is necessary to transform the SAPO into a separate legal entity, increase the number of prosecutors, and optimize the procedures for appointing the head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.

In addition, it is proposed to introduce guarantees of administrative independence of the SAPO from the Prosecutor General's Office and to transfer to the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and its head all criminal procedural powers related to NABU proceedings that currently belong to the Prosecutor General or the PGO.

Add

International auditors have previously stated that the HACC reviews cases for years, while NABU detectives can investigate them for decades.

And, as practice shows, the duration of an anti-corruption investigation does not affect its quality, as the NABU's "high-profile" cases against high-ranking officials have repeatedly fallen apart in court.

A good example is the criminal proceedings against former Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan. Both cases collapsed in court. As the former minister noted in an interview with UNN  , the NABU criminal proceedings caused him significant reputational and financial damage. For many years, he has been mentioned in NABU reports as a minister against whom criminal proceedings have been opened, which has led to problems with banking institutions, among other things.

However, the NABU and the SAPO did not officially apologize to the former minister for the illegal criminal prosecution and damage to his business reputation. This was done only by individual detectives in private conversations.

One of the recent "high-profile" cases that NABU has been investigating for five years is the case against the former Minister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Solskyi. According to the investigation, Solskyi allegedly took possession of land plots in Sumy region that allegedly belonged to the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences.

However, as it turned out later, neither he, nor his family or affiliates have such land. However, ATO participants, who have been granted the right to privatize them, do. The NABU refused to specify what exactly Solsky had seized . Moreover, the detectives tried to "leak" the examination, which they themselves had ordered and which, apparently, was supposed to testify to Solsky's innocence. However, the public accusations had their effect - Solsky resigned from his post as minister.