President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed law No. 1150-IX on the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine, which the Verkhovna Rada adopted on January 28, 2021, the presidential press service said on Monday.
“The document creates institutional conditions to protect economic processes from the pressure of law enforcement agencies, which is supported by Ukraine’s international partners. The main function of the Bureau of Economic Security will be analytical work, not law enforcement powers. The bureau will analyze the beneficiaries of financial transactions and determine if there is a violation of the law in the circulation of funds of certain businesses or government agencies,” the president said in the document.
ECONOMIC SECURITY, ECONOMIC SECURITY BUREAU, VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY
Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada has adopted at the first reading bill No. 3087-d on the creation of the Bureau of Economic Security, which should become a single body for combating economic crimes and remove the duplication of these functions from various law enforcement agencies.
An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that the bill was supported by 245 MPs with the required 226 votes.
According to the document, the director of the Bureau is appointed based on the results of a competition and dismissed by the president. However, by the second reading it is planned to amend the bill to reassign the head of this body to the Cabinet of Ministers, said the co-author of the bill and Head of the committee on finance, tax and customs policy Danylo Hetmantsev.
According to him, this is necessary taking into account the decision of the Constitutional Court on the unconstitutionality of the appointment of Artem Sytnyk as director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau.
As the text of the bill shows, it is proposed to set the maximum number of the Bureau’s employees at 4,000 people. In turn, Hetmantsev said that the current number of employees of the tax police is 4,600.
“The director is accountable to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine,” Hetmantsev said.
