NACP should check for conflict of interest in Deputy Managing Director of the Deposit Guarantee Fund Rudukha - lawyer

The National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption should check whether Natalia Rudukha, Deputy Managing Director of the Deposit Guarantee Fund, has a conflict of interest. If found, she should be brought to administrative responsibility and dismissed from her position. This opinion was expressed by lawyer Denys Tsypin in an exclusive commentary to UNN.

"The NACP can check for a conflict of interest (Rudukha - ed.). This is their direct function. If the NACP establishes the existence of decisions with her signature in relation to the financial institutions where she worked, this may be recognized as a conflict of interest, which will entail consequences in the form of administrative liability, dismissal, etc.", Tsypin said.

At the same time, he added that since the managing director of the Deposit Guarantee Fund and his deputies are appointed by the administrative board of the fund, headed by Oleksandr Zyma, director of the NBU's legal department,  the board is collectively responsible.

"In this case, these people have a lot of discretion. For example, who appointed this person (Rudukha - ed.) to the position? All of them together are the administrative board of the fund, which is the Cabinet of Ministers, the Verkhovna Rada and the NBU, and they bear not personal but collective responsibility. Purely political, not criminal or administrative for their appointments, because each of them did not make decisions independently, and each of them could be misled under certain circumstances, or they could not take into account some circumstances... But usually it is this collective responsibility, or rather irresponsibility, that is inherent in those public authorities where corruption risks are most present," Tsypin said.

According to him, the members of the DGF's administrative board could not make decisions on their own, they represented the interests of their state authorities and followed the direct instructions of the heads of these state authorities.

"As for the formal circumstances - why a person who does not have an impeccable reputation in financial institutions was able to take this position - well, because these bodies decided that this candidate best meets the requirements and is able to realize the interests of these state bodies in the future," Tsypin said.

In his opinion, Ukraine has a sufficient number of regulatory authorities that are able to identify all possible risks and select ideal candidates for positions, no matter what questions they have. However, this requires the appropriate political will.

"We understand that in fact the bodies that control and in this case should have prevented such cases are appointed by the political authorities in Ukraine and given special tasks. We need, for example, to receive a million euros or dollars in cash from this fund every month, because we think we need this money. And they appoint exactly those people to these positions who are capable of stealing, engaging in corruption schemes, and they are chosen for these qualities, not for any other. Who can prevent this? Only the political authorities in the country. If it wants to take bribes and engage in corruption, it will do so under any conditions and legislative acts. If there is no such political will, there will be no corruption," Mr. Tsypin summarized.

Recall

Natalia Rudukha previously worked in several banks that were declared insolvent and liquidation procedures were initiated. However, this did not prevent her from obtaining a managerial position in a state body that deals with bank liquidation, despite a direct legal prohibition.

It is known from open sources  that Rudukha worked as chief economist of the operational accounting department of Nadra Bank, which was liquidated a few years after her dismissal. In addition, from December 2007 to June 2012, Rudukha worked as chief accountant and deputy chairman of the board of Astra Bank, which was declared insolvent by the court. In March-September 2015, she was deputy chairman of the board of Kontrakt Bank. Like the others, this bank was also declared insolvent in October 2015, and the process of its liquidation began.  The website of the Deposit Guarantee Fund statesthat on the eve of the introduction of the temporary administration at PJSC Bank Kontrakt, its management, including Natalia Rudukha, sold the bank's property without actually receiving funds to the accounts and transferring funds from legal entities to individuals' accounts. This significantly increased the amount of compensation from the Guarantee Fund.