The Head of the Commission for the Selection of the BEB Director, Laura Ștefan, Refuses to Publish Evaluation Criteria, NABU Detective Skomarov Takes First Place – Document

The scandal surrounding the competition for the position of director of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine is gaining momentum. Competition participant Viktor Dubovyk announced that he had received an official refusal to provide information about his own assessments and selection criteria. He published the response with the refusal to provide information on his Facebook page.

The document signed by the chairman of the commission, Laura Stefan, states that "the competition commission is not a subject of power and its decisions are not binding on state authorities, local self-government bodies, or other persons."

According to experts, this approach calls into question the very meaning of the competitive procedure, because it turns out that the commission does not recognize its decisions as legally binding - and therefore, the entire procedure for selecting the director of the BEB loses its institutional meaning and legitimacy.

This is not just a violation of transparency standards. This is an actual recognition of the powerlessness of the body that should guarantee the independence of the BEB through an open competitive procedure

According to him, this position grossly contradicts the Law of Ukraine "On the Bureau of Economic Security" and the Regulations of the competition commission itself, which is authorized to conduct the competition, evaluate candidates and approve the results. However, according to the logic of the head of the commission, none of these decisions is binding, and therefore is not subject to control, appeal or even explanation.

In his appeal, Dubovyk, as a candidate for the position of director of the BEB, asked to provide the evaluation criteria for the practical tasks of the candidates, the results of which significantly affected the total rating of the competition participants. After all, he drew attention to the fact that such changes occurred immediately after the human factor appeared. 

Currently, the top five leaders, from whom the winner will probably be chosen, consist of 4 representatives of anti-corruption bodies and a former manager of Akhmetov. 

Oleksandr Skomarov, 215.35 points. After evaluating practical tasks, he changed his position from 7th to 1st place. 

Head of the Second Main Division of Detectives of the NABU. Skomarov is called the most likely candidate for the position, as he has the support of representatives of anti-corruption public organizations and formally meets the criteria of integrity.  However, earlier, during his participation in the competition for the head of the NACP, he was unable to explain his position in a direct conflict of interest. After all, his sister was involved in the NABU criminal proceedings, whom Oleksandr Skomarov wanted to take on bail in court. The woman was a suspect in the NABU criminal proceedings regarding the sanctioned "king of contraband" Alperin, several cases of which are currently being investigated by the Bureau of Economic Security. Therefore, the conflict of interest of the candidate for the position of director of the BEB has not disappeared, but has only intensified.

Roman Yaromenok, 199.65 points. After evaluating practical tasks, he changed his position from 5th to 2nd place. 

Senior NABU detective. Last May, he participated in the competition for a judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, and even earlier he competed for the position of head of the SAP. Journalists accused Yaromenok of involvement in the "leaking" of materials of criminal proceedings. Yaromenok did not provide adequate explanations on this matter.

Oleksandr Sytnikov, 193.3 points. After evaluating practical tasks, he changed his position from 4th to 3rd place. 

Head of the Internal Control Department of the SAP. There are almost no mentions of Sytnikov in the media, except for information that he is currently working in the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office as the head of the internal control department. This is a rather closed unit that conducts internal investigations. There is currently no information about participation in previous competitions, nor any additional information.

Ruslan Pakhomov, 191 points. After evaluating practical tasks, he changed his position from 1st to 4th place. 

A native of law enforcement agencies, he worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the presidency of Yanukovych as deputy head of the cybercrime department. Then, for many years, he held senior positions in the company "Media Group Ukraine", the ultimate beneficiary of which is the richest Ukrainian Rinat Akhmetov. It is known that in July 2022, "PrivatBank" closed the accounts of Ruslan Pakhomov. This happened after he transferred 13.5 million hryvnias to his wife's company within two days, which raised the bank's suspicion of possible legalization and money laundering of unknown origin. Since the beginning of the competition for the Director of the BEB, he has focused on media activity. 

Oleksandr Tsyvinskyi, 185.65 points. After evaluating practical tasks, he changed his position from 16th to 5th place. 

Head of the NABU detective unit. Known for the recent investigation of the Komarnytskyi case regarding machinations with the capital's land.

Previously, Tsyvinskyi participated in many competitions for senior positions in the NABU, including the director, but did not pass. Questions during the interviews concerned the real estate he acquired during his service.

At the same time, Ihor Shepetin, who some media positioned as the future winner of the competition, scored only 144 points in the overall result and took a place in the last five participants.

We remind you that in general, among the candidates for the position of director of the Bureau of Economic Security, the most remained representatives from NABU and SAP. Journalists associate this trend with the fact that the current competition is a copy of the competition for the position of director of NABU, in which almost all current candidates participated. 

During the last meeting, the Commission for the selection of the Director of the BEB approved the total rating of candidates and the schedule of interviews. They will take place on June 8-10 and will be broadcast online.