Weekly analysis for 01 – 07 October

The Government approves the membership of the Competition Commission for the position of Director of the Bureau of Economic Security

Event

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine by its Decree №  941-r of October 4, 2024 approved commissions for holding a competition for the position of Director of the Bureau of Economic Security. 

The membership of the Commission, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine includes the following members:

Hyliaka Oleh Serhiyovych, deputy chief academic secretary – head of the Strategic development department of the National Academy of Legal Sciences;

Matselyk Tetiana Oleksandrivna, professor of the department of financial and tax law of the State Tax University;

Ponomarenko Yuriy Anatoliyovych, head of the department of criminal law at Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University.

Among the members of the Commission, which were approved by the CMU based on the proposals from international and foreign organizations that have provided Ukraine with international technical assistance in the area of preventing and combating corruption and/or reforming law enforcement agencies during the last three years before the dismissal of the BES Director, are:

James Wasserstrom, founder and executive director of the Integrity and Asylum Foundation, Toronto, Canada, founder and executive director/senior consultant of the Wasserstrorri Group, Thessaloniki, Greece;

Donatas Malaskevicus, head of the Lithuanian Police Liaison Office to EUROPOL, expert on corruption prevention of the EU Project on strengthening the resilience of Integrated Border Management in Ukraine (EU4IBMResilience), implemented by the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD);

Laura Stefan, founder and executive director of the Expert Forum (EFOR), international expert on anti-corruption reform for the European Commission, World Bank, United Nations Development Program, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), head of the Regional Anti-Corruption Initiative.

CPLR’s assessment

As of today, the acting Director of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine is Serhii Perkhun.

The European Commission’s EU Enlargement Policy Report of November 8, 2023 states that Ukraine should introduce legislation to enable the selection of the new head and other staff of the Bureau of Economic Security in a competitive, transparent manner, including a credible integrity check. 

On June 30, 2024, Law № 3840-IX became effective, which launched the process of “rebooting the Bureau of Economic Security”, the necessity of which we have repeatedly pointed in our analytical points (1, 2, 3). Thus, among other things, according to its provisions, the procedure for electing a new director of the BES has started.

According to the new procedure:

– new BES director shall be elected by a Competition Commission consisting of 6-members (3 – from the Cabinet of Ministers; 3 – based on proposals from international and foreign organizations providing international technical assistance in the area of preventing and combating corruption and/or in the area of law enforcement reform). At the same time, international experts have a decisive vote – a decision is considered adopted if at least 4 members of the commission (2 of whom are international) vote for it, and in case of a tie in the second vote, by 3 votes (2 of whom are international) (amendments to parts 3-5 of Article 15 of the Law);

–the Competition Commission submits no more than two candidates selected from the competition participants for consideration of the Prime Minister of Ukraine The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine shall appoint the Director of the Bureau within 10 days from the date of receiving the submission of the Competition Commission with information on the candidates selected as a result of the competition;

– “integrity and competence” is added to the requirements for the Bureau’s Director.

According to the final and transitional provisions of Law № 3840-IX, the Competition Commission for the selection of the Director of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine shall be formed within two months from the date of enactment of this Law (until August 30, 2024). The membership of such a Commission was approved with a slight delay (Decree № 941-r).

The law does not specify the timeframe for such a competition. At the same time, after the appointment of the new Director of the Bureau, the BES employees are subject to a one-time certification to confirm the appropriate level of integrity and professional competence. The duration of certification may not exceed 18 months from the date of appointment to the position of the Director of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine. In addition, the appointment of a new Director enables the creation of appropriate personnel and disciplinary commissions and is generally aimed at a full-fledged staffing renewal of this body, which, besides the certification, also includes internal control mechanisms.