NABU is an institutional error: international audit exposed the ignoring of defense sector cases and bloated staff - expert

The international commission has finally completed the audit of NABU's work, revealing numerous shortcomings and violations. The Bureau must be dissolved, as it is impossible to reform it, - political expert Oleg Posternak commented on the published report on the results of the external independent evaluation of NABU, reports UNN.

"After the diagnosis voiced even by loyal internationalists and supported by Ukrainian media, it is impossible to continue pretending that NABU only needs "reforms". NABU is an institutional mistake that cannot be corrected by any cosmetic reforms. The Bureau must be dissolved, not reformed," Posternak wrote.

The expert cited the commission's conclusions, which indicate significant problems in NABU. In particular, he noted that the Bureau chronically leaks information, but no effective criminal investigation has been conducted as a result. In addition, NABU's staff is constantly growing, but despite this, detectives and management constantly complain about the lack of hands for "large" investigations. And, most importantly, in 2023 the Bureau issued one suspicion in the field of defense, and in 2024 - none.

"According to public data, in 2024, UAH 1.9 billion was spent from the state budget to maintain NABU, while the Bureau's activities led to the return of as much as… UAH 823 million from corrupt officials. That is, 2.2 times more was spent than returned to the state! Ukraine is at war, millions of Ukrainians are involved in the defense, and the Bureau lacks either the resources or, rather, the desire to deal with truly important matters. However, no one forgets to expand the staff and receive salaries of more than one hundred thousand!" he stressed.

The expert noted that the report of international experts should be supplemented by the scandals that have shaken NABU in recent months: the capture of a Bureau representative for the production and sale of drugs, the acquisition by detective Mykhailo Romaniuk of VIP cars and elite real estate for relatives, the concealment of millions in cryptocurrency by detectives, the coercion of witnesses into intimate relationships, and the escape of detective Arshavin - the carrier of state secrets - to Romania.

"After 10 years of existence and hundreds of millions of euros of international aid, Ukraine has finally received its first external audit of NABU. One can only imagine what the result would have been if the commission had real "teeth" and no desire to gloss over the Bureau's constant failures," the expert summarized.

As reported, in September 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers appointed a Commission of foreign experts to conduct an external independent evaluation of NABU. Only on November 18, this commission met - for the first time in more than 9 years of the Bureau's existence. The commission decided to limit itself to the period from the appointment of the current Director of the Bureau (from March 6, 2023) to November 18, 2024. In this regard, Ukrainian lawyers demanded an independent assessment of NABU's work for the entire period of its existence. But this was never done.