The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) should be disbanded due to its high operational costs coupled with extremely low efficiency, failures in its work, prolonged investigations, manipulation of expert opinions, and systematic corruption scandals involving its detectives. This opinion was expressed by political expert Oleh Posternak.
"High expenditures with low returns, multiplied by the professional inefficiency of detectives, combined with a lack of initiative, dubious expert opinions, and corruption scandals among employees. This is today's NABU. And it needs radical measures. The first step is to disband the Bureau and create a new anti-corruption system. Otherwise, nothing will change," Posternak emphasized.
He explained, with facts, why NABU should be disbanded. First, due to its low economic efficiency.
"Over the 10 years of the Bureau's existence, the state has spent over 10 billion UAH on it. Meanwhile, the total amount of recoveries from court decisions in cases handled by NABU between 2015 and 2025 is approximately 800 million UAH. This means that for every 1 hryvnia returned to the state budget, NABU spent... 12 (!) hryvnias! 'Impressive' efficiency," the expert stated with indignation.
Second, he highlighted the low productivity of detectives.
"Last year, NABU initiated 669 criminal proceedings, which amounts to 2-3 proceedings per detective. For comparison, one investigator from the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) simultaneously investigates between 300 and 1000. At the same time, only 30% of suspects in cases handled by NABU detectives are government officials or public servants. Therefore, Transparency International Ukraine, in its report on the Bureau's 10 years of work, strongly advises optimizing resource utilization: focusing on top-corruption cases and those involving systemic corruption," the expert's post reads.
Furthermore, Posternak stated that NABU lacks initiative and drags out investigations.
"Most of the meager number of cases investigated by the Bureau are not initiated by it — as a rule, they are transferred from other bodies (SBI, National Police, etc.). In general, 77% of all corruption crimes in the state are investigated by the National Police. NABU detectives are known for their high-profile exposures of high-ranking officials, but it often takes them up to ten years to bring their 'exposure' to a verdict," he stressed.
The expert drew attention to dubious expert opinions that have led to the collapse of high-profile cases, including "Rotterdam+" and the case involving Omelian.
"This refers, for example, to the 'International Expert Legal Group,' from which they ordered an expert assessment of the market value of land plots. However, the business codes (KVEDs) under which it is registered do not provide for such an expert assessment. Even astrological and spiritual activities (and this is not a joke!) are provided for, but not the appraisal of land value," he reported.
He also reminded that all of NABU's activities are accompanied by constant scandals involving detectives. These include suspicious deals with elite apartments that are registered and re-registered to relatives and declared at an underestimated price, VIP cars also with understated prices, cryptocurrency manipulations, covering up relatives from prison, concealing their Russian citizenship, and systemic corruption.
Thus, in his opinion, disbanding NABU is an opportunity to save funds for the army.
"Ukraine constantly needs money to finance its army. To have more, we can either cut some expenses or raise taxes. It's clear that none of us want tax increases, especially during these difficult times. That leaves cutting expenses — at the expense of inefficient structures that are currently devouring budget billions. And the first contender for this is NABU, whose inefficiency is already evident even to international experts," Posternak concluded.
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