"Transparency Turns into Stonewalling". Candidate for Head of Ukraine’s Bureau of Economic Security Denied Access to Evaluation Records

Victor Dubovyk, a candidate for the position of Director of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (BES), has reported systemic violations of openness and transparency by the competition commission overseeing the selection process. According to Dubovyk, the commission officially denied his request to access his own evaluation results from the practical stage of the competition and refused to disclose the identities or qualifications of the evaluators.

Dubovyk shared the information on his Facebook page.

"A competition that was supposed to be a model of transparency is turning into a fortress resistant to any attempt at public dialogue. I received no substantive answers—even though I’m a candidate in the process," Dubovyk stated.

In his formal request, Dubovyk asked for the evaluation methodology, the composition of the expert panel, the grading procedure, the correct answers to the test tasks, and confirmation that confidentiality rules were followed. None of these questions received a response.

The head of the commission reportedly claimed that the commission is not a holder of public information because it does not issue “decisions binding on third parties.”

"So the logic is: if there’s no legal obligation, there’s no need to answer questions? This undermines trust not only in the competition itself but also in the future leadership of an institution tasked with combating economic crime," Dubovyk emphasized.

In his statement, Dubovyk also highlighted that the evaluation methodology was never publicly approved, commission members did not provide individual scores for candidates as required by law, results from the practical stage were read aloud without any discussion, and the evaluators—whose identities, positions, and affiliations remain unknown—have not been disclosed. Additionally, the minutes from the May 13 session have not been published, despite requirements outlined in the commission’s rules.

Dubovyk compared the situation to the legal doctrine of the “fruit of the poisonous tree,” used in both the European Court of Human Rights and Ukraine’s Supreme Court, where evidence or decisions derived from tainted processes are deemed unreliable.

"When the outcome is based on anonymous evaluators, a lack of methodology, and procedural violations—it cannot be trusted. This is not a competition; it’s a simulation," Dubovyk concluded.

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