Ukrainian MPs Try To Pre-Select The Second NABU Auditor

Ukrainian MPs from the two biggest factions in parliament, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and the People's Front, proposed to appoint the auditor of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau without interviewing candidates. Hromadske's correspondent was informed.

It will be the second NABU auditor appointed. On May 26, the Cabinet of Ministers appointed Ukrainian lawyer and academic Mykhailo Buromenskiy as a National Anti-Corruption Bureau auditor. The Cabinet of Ministers, the Parliament and the President must each appoint an auditor separately in order to launch the first audit of the country's newly created Anti-Corruption Bureau.

MPs suggested this move during the anti-corruption committee meeting. During the discussion, the head of the committee, Egor Sobolev, refused to make a decision without interviewing the candidates. According to him, no parliament appoints somebody for a position without holding interviews.

After the discussion, the head of the committee put forward the proposition to set up a date for the interviews to vote, but it gathered not enough MP votes.

After that he went into daily agenda.

"As the committee hasn't voted to set the date, I will go on to the daily agenda. We will come back to the question when most of the collegues will be ready for normal work," Egor Sobolev said.

At this point, the deputies from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and the People's Front left the meeting.

"The key goal of such a move is to appoint an auditor and to dismiss Artem Sytnyk [the head of the Anti-Corruption Burreau - ed.], till the end of the summer," said the head of Anti-Corruption Action Center Vitalii Shabunin.

The deputies from Petro Poroshenko Bloc and People's Front derailed the previous meeting by not coming at all. It was later reported that there were nine individuals nominated for the position of NABU auditor. Seven of them met the demands of the committee. Deputies planned to accept their CVs and invite them for the meeting of the committee on fighting corruption on June 7, but because of the absence of some members, there were no quorum to make a decision.

Earlier, the Verkhovna Rada made attempts to appoint the NABU auditor within their quota. Later, the anti-corruption committee recommended the parliament to support Robert Storch, who has experience auditing the FBI. However, the deputies of parliament's coalition tried to appoint Nigel Brown.

The NABU auditors will examine the work of the major anti-corruption structure in Ukraine. The purpose of the audit is to assess the overall effectiveness of NABU. The independent auditors will examine the state of criminal proceedings and the way in which detectives from the Bureau carry out investigations. They will also determine the effectiveness of the Bureau’s Director, Artem Sytnyk.

\Translated by Liuda Kornievych