The European Business Association (EBA) has appealed to the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk not to vote for the draft laws No. 10439-10440 on the reform of the Bureau of Economic Security (BES) and amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code and other legislative acts to improve the work of the BES and to finalize the draft laws No. 10088 and No. 10088-1 on the reboot of the BES, which were previously registered in the Rada.
As noted in the EBA statement on Wednesday, the government’s draft law, in particular, does not specify the timeframe for the formation of a renewed BES team after the election of the head, and the re-certification of employees is postponed until after the war.
“For several years, the European Business Association has been emphasizing the need to reboot the BES in order to improve its efficiency and mitigate corruption risks that may arise in the work of this state body, which is responsible for combating economic crime and smuggling,” the EBA emphasizes.
The Association insists that the selection of key positions at the BES should be carried out on a competitive basis, and that it is extremely important and of top priority to appoint an effective leader who will continue to form the team. Therefore, the competition commission should propose to the Prime Minister one, not three, candidates for the position of director in order to avoid possible political influence on such an appointment.
According to business representatives, re-certification of all BES employees is necessary after the election of a new head, and all economic crimes (after the reform) should be within the BES’s competence.
Regarding the criticism of Draft Law No. 10440, the EBA pointed out the difficulty of implementing some of its provisions, in particular, the involvement of the Business Ombudsman Council in searches and seizures in BES proceedings. In addition, according to the association, some provisions duplicate or contradict others, for example, the failure to involve representatives of other law enforcement agencies in investigative actions.
As reported, on October 13, 2023, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy recommended that the Parliament adopt as a basis the draft law No. 10088 “On Priority Measures for Reforming the BES” and its alternative No. 10088-1. This draft law was also supported by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economy, and the Ministry of Justice made comments.
Later, on December 29, 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers approved its draft law on reforming the BES, which declares a reboot of the Bureau a year after the war. It was sharply criticized by Vitaliy Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, and Yaroslav Zheleznyak, first deputy head of the parliamentary committee in charge. According to them, in this form, the control over the BES will be retained by the President’s Office, and the IMF will not count this structural beacon.
As a result, the government postponed submitting the draft law to the Rada for a month, but even after it was finalized, it was criticized.
