A Ukrainian delegation is visiting Washington, consisting of the director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NACB) Semen Kryvonos, his two deputies, the head of the High Anti-Corruption Court Vira Mykhailenko and the head of the High Anti-Corruption Court’s office Bohdan Kryklyvenko, as well as the head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office Oleksandr Klymenko.
This is reported by ZN.UA.
According to the publication, the trip was planned in advance, and one of its key topics was the discussion of strengthening the independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption system and the problems that arise in this area. But it coincided with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's announcement of his intention to make changes to the legislation that, during martial law, will equate corruption with treason, and cases that are exclusively the competence of the NACB will be investigated by the Security Service of Ukraine.
The publication, citing sources in diplomatic circles, reports that the Western partners reacted extremely negatively to this idea and defined it as an attack on the independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption system.
Of the anti-corruption bodies, only the heads of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) (investigate corruption, but not high-ranking officials) and the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) (deals with declarations of incomes of civil servants who are not submitted during martial law) remained in place.
We will remind you that Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the day before that he intends to submit a bill to the Verkhovna Rada to equate corruption with treason at wartime. "Because we are developing a democratic society. It is very important not to tighten the screws and not look every time at one or another sharp and blatant case. We must introduce systemic things," he explained.
Sources of ZN.UA in the President's Office informed that the NACB initially planned to leave only minor corruption investigations, but after opposition from Western partners decided to give the SSU the right to simultaneously conduct investigations into major corruption cases. In the event of duplicate investigations in the NACB and the SSU, the decision on the investigation will be made by the Prosecutor General's Office.
The publication's sources at the NACB emphasized that in case of such changes, any case can be taken from the NACB, and there will be legislative grounds for this, which will have a number of negative consequences.
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