Only last months of NACB work will be audited instead of 9 years – so as not to recognize corruption, inefficiency and illegal actions of its leadership – Kochetkov

The audit of the activities of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NACB) will be conducted only for the last months of its work, and not from the moment of its establishment, so as not to recognize internal corruption, inefficiency and illegal actions of the NACB leadership.

Political expert Oleksandr Kochetkov has written this.

"Out of 9 years of the NACB's existence, only the last months of its work will be audited, so as not to recognize corruption, inefficiency and illegal actions of its leadership. Now we have another mess: the law on the NACB clearly states: an external independent assessment (audit) of the effectiveness of this body's activities must be conducted every year. Do you know how many audits there have been during its entire existence? Zero!" wrote Kochetkov.

The expert mentioned the periods during which the NACB was not audited.

"The NACB was not checked when its head Sytnyk was officially recognized as corrupt at that time and entered into the relevant state register of corrupt officials. The NACB was not checked when its leadership was caught red-handed leaking information to those suspected of embezzling millions of dollars. The NACB has never reported on its work to society. It is at our expense that these "corruption fighters" feed themselves. The NACB grossly violates the law on the NACB every year, not allowing a single state authority to be audited. Every year. Violates. The law," Kochetkov emphasized.

Finally, he noted, in September 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers appointed a Commission to conduct an external independent assessment. And only on November 18, this commission met - for the first time in over 9 years of the Bureau's existence.

"Of course, everyone expected a comprehensive audit of the NACB for all 9 years. But the commission of foreigners decided to limit itself only to the period from the appointment of the current director of the Bureau (March 6, 2023) to the date of approval of the evaluation methodology (November 18, 2024). Only 20 months instead of 108. All previous corruption scandals of the anti-corruption body were decided to be forgotten," the expert said.

He emphasized that Ukrainian human rights activists have already assessed such an "audit".

"This is an example of how foreigners ignore the Law, which they dragged through the Verkhovna Rada through their own hands, and are trying to hide and exempt from liability hundreds of the NACB detectives who violated the Law," Kochetkov quotes the well-known lawyer Rostyslav Kravets. According to the latter, the real goal of creating the NACB, the SACPO, NACP, the HACC, the ARMA is not the fight against corruption, but attempts to destroy the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine.

The expert gave the example of Poland as a way to deal with arbitrariness with complete disregard for the laws of Ukraine by the NACB and its supervisors.

"There, the new coalition that won the elections last year provided for the liquidation of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau in the agreement. The Poles changed their minds about feeding corrupt officials who are sheltered by foreigners under the banner of "anti-corruption". Well done. Maybe Ukraine should take this experience into account?", Kochetkov concluded.