NABU must undergo an external audit and a review of its detectives, according to the Verkhovna Rada's law enforcement committee

The unprecedented independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine obliges this body to demonstrate effective work. However, according to experts, the trust in the body is not yet justified – detectives regularly get involved in corruption scandals, and they are also accused of working for business raiders. Volodymyr Vatras, head of the subcommittee on the organization and activities of advocacy, legal aid bodies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Legal Policy, is convinced that an independent external audit of NABU's activities is needed, UNN writes.

NABU has unprecedented independence, compared to other law enforcement agencies, and therefore they are obliged to justify the trust of the people and prove it with their effective work

According to him, it is necessary to conduct an external independent audit of the work of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, as well as a qualification assessment of detectives.

"It is necessary to conduct both an external audit and something like a qualification assessment of already working detectives and investigators. Perhaps announce new recruitment of employees and strengthen the requirements for candidates," Vatras noted.

Let's add

One example of NABU detectives' involvement in custom-made cases is the criminal proceedings against businessman Oleksiy Fedorychev, owner of the "TIS-Zerno" and "TIS-Dobryva" terminals in the "Pivdennyi" port. Detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine have been persecuting the entrepreneur for more than 10 years. The criminal proceedings against him are rather an attempt to raid the terminals with the hands of NABU, which has dragged on for too long.

In fact, for 10 years they have not managed to serve the businessman with a notice of suspicion or choose a preventive measure for him. And regular attempts to seize property, although they end in failure every time, significantly hinder the conduct of critically important business during the war, related to ensuring food security.

A clear indication that the case against Fedorychev is a business dispute involving anti-corruption law enforcement officers is the decision of the court of the Principality of Monaco, where the businessman has lived for a long time. Monaco judges refused to serve Oleksiy Fedorychev with a notice of suspicion, stating that his case is a commercial dispute, not a criminal one.

"... the information set out in the requests does not allow to determine the nature of the case as criminal, which enables the competent authorities of the Principality of Monaco to conclude: the essence of the case largely concerns facts that underlie a dispute of a purely economic nature," the decision stated.

The judges of the High Anti-Corruption Court were of a similar opinion, who saw no grounds for seizing property or choosing a preventive measure for Fedorychev. Moreover, they even refused to extend the terms of the pre-trial investigation after they expired.

However, the ingenuity of NABU detectives is striking. Instead of accepting defeat and admitting that the case was custom-made, they formally transferred it for investigation to the National Police. Having joined the investigative group, the first thing NABU officers did was to force their colleagues in the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv to push through a decision to extend the investigation period.

Not getting what they wanted in the HACC, the detectives are trying to push through the necessary decisions in the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv. So everything indicates that NABU is too interested in the terminals in the "Pivdennyi" port.

NABU as an instrument of pressure

Experts interviewed by UNN point to the selectivity of the Anti-Corruption Bureau's work, as well as its inefficiency. In particular, over the 10 years of the body's existence, there has been a minimal number of top officials brought to justice for corruption. In fact, for one detective – one conviction that has entered into force.

They also note that NABU detectives often investigate criminal cases for years that should have been completed in the shortest possible time.