NABU should change approaches to investigating cases, as some of them result in acquittals - audit

International auditors have pointed out that some of the NABU's cases of abuse of power and misappropriation of property resulted in acquittals and drew criticism from society and the business community. This is stated in the report of international experts who audited the work of anti-corruption activists for the period from 2021 to 2023, UNN writes.

The auditors emphasized that the NABU should analyze proceedings on abuse of power and misappropriation of property that resulted in acquittals and change the detectives' approaches to investigating such cases.

"Several of the cases handled by the NABU drew criticism from civil society and the business community, which saw the proceedings as a prosecution of management decisions made by officials who were supposed to be engaged in reforms," the report says.

In addition, international experts pointed to the insufficient number of comprehensive financial investigations conducted by the NABU and emphasized that detectives should increase their efforts and expertise in this area.

The auditors believe that the NABU should better organize and focus on financial investigations to trace assets, establish their connection to crimes, and seize them to ensure their return to the state.

"A significant amount of assets has been seized in NABU proceedings, but as these proceedings are not completed in court, these assets have not yet been confiscated. The very low value of the means of committing corruption crimes and the proceeds of crime confiscated in NABU cases is striking and requires immediate action," the experts emphasized.

Context

Foreign experts in their report on the results of the NABU audit identified a number of problems in the anti-corruption body's activities. In particular, the auditors statedthat the HACC has been considering cases for years, while NABU detectives can investigate them for decades. However, as practice shows, the duration of an anti-corruption investigation does not affect its quality, as "high-profile" NABU cases against high-ranking officials have repeatedly fallen apart in courts.

A good example is the criminal proceedings against former Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan. Both cases collapsed in the courts. However, the NABU did not officially apologize to the former minister for illegal criminal prosecution and damage to his business reputation.

In general, the NABU makes statements about "high-profile exposés" of top officials, but such cases do not always have a legal basis.

This seems to be the case with another case against the former minister, Mykola Solsky. In April, he was accused of seizing landthat allegedly belonged to the National Academy of Sciences. 

In order for the NABU's accusations to be confirmed, they first need to prove that the land really belonged to the NAAS - but there is no data or official documents. Moreover, the representatives of the agrarian academy themselves say that there were no documents for the land. As it turned out, the former minister's declarations for the period from 2020 to 2023 do not contain a single land plot in Sumy region.

And although during this time anti-corruption activists were unable to provide clear evidence of Mykola Solskyi's "guilt," the loud accusations did their job - he resigned from the post of minister. In addition, the NABU's statements and the minister's resignation caused the disruption of negotiations with the Poles on border unblocking.

The Kharkiv Human Rights Group called the NABU's statements against former Minister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Solsky a violation of the presumption of innocence. Human rights activists also believe that the real reason for the prosecution of Solsky is the desire to stop his efforts to create a land market in Ukraine.