{"id":35256,"date":"2025-07-10T14:37:26","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T11:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/?p=35256"},"modified":"2025-08-06T15:18:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T12:18:12","slug":"kyiv-spurns-suggested-head-of-economic-crimes-bureau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/kyiv-spurns-suggested-head-of-economic-crimes-bureau\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyiv spurns suggested head of economic crimes bureau, setting up clash with Western partners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ukrainian officials head to a conference in Rome to ask for more aid having derailed an independent selection process backed by the country\u2019s Western allies.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sidebar-grid__container\">\n<div class=\"sidebar-grid__content article__content\">\n<p>The Ukrainian government is facing a sharp backlash after rejecting a candidate picked by an independent commission to lead an agency tasked with investigating economic crimes.<\/p>\n<p>The Bureau of Economic Security was created in 2021 but has been accused of extorting businesses. In recent years,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_24_3861\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the European Union<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.interfax.com.ua\/news\/economic\/1085852.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">International Monetary Fund<\/a>\u00a0have made reform of the bureau a condition for continued aid payments.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the reform process, an independent commission chose Oleksandr Tsyvinskyi, an anti-corruption detective who earlier this year exposed a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nabu.gov.ua\/en\/news\/zemel-na-koruptciia-v-ky-vs-kiyi-mis-kradi-vykryto-zlochynnu-organizatciiu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">major land corruption case<\/a>\u00a0in Kyiv, to lead the bureau.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"sidebar-grid__sidebar\"><\/aside>\n<div class=\"sidebar-grid__container\">\n<div class=\"sidebar-grid__content article__content\">\n<p>But on Monday the government\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/uriad24\/11331\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">announced it would not appoint<\/a>\u00a0Tsyvinskyi to the position and instead asked the commission to pick two other candidates.<\/p>\n<p>Civil society groups and lawmakers say the government\u2019s actions are illegal, threaten the independence of law enforcement, and jeopardize international aid \u2014 just as Ukrainian officials head from Kyiv to Rome to tout the country\u2019s reforms and plead for more funding at a major recovery conference.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"sidebar-grid__container\">\n<div class=\"sidebar-grid__content article__content\">\n<p>While the bureau was created partly to prevent law enforcement from extorting businesses, Bohdan Slutsky of Ukraine\u2019s Centre for Economic Strategy think tank said nothing had changed in practice since its founding.<\/p>\n<p>A reform passed by the country\u2019s parliament last year gave the bureau another shot, but critics say the government has now derailed it by refusing to confirm Tsyvinskyi.<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of Ukrainian anti-corruption activists, leading\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/forbes.ua\/news\/biznes-spilnota-zaklikala-zelenskogo-stefanchuka-ta-shmigalya-pereglyanuti-rishennya-pro-priznachennya-direktora-beb-08072025-31128\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">business associations<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/story.php?story_fbid=24639199709017719&amp;id=100000630957144&amp;mibextid=wwXIfr&amp;rdid=k1PW76nWcAawbuRH#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">economic think tanks<\/a>\u00a0have urged Zelenskyy and the government to reverse course and appoint Tsyvinskyi to the post.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"sidebar-grid__sidebar\"><\/aside>\n<div class=\"sidebar-grid__container\">\n<div class=\"sidebar-grid__content article__content\">\n<p>In addition to the need to follow the law and observe due process, Slutsky said, without reform and in the wrong hands, the agency will continue subjecting firms to costly legal battles, unjustified raids and bureaucratic harassment.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/ukraine-government-bureau-of-economic-security-oleksandr-tsyvinskyi\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Politico<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ukrainian officials head to a conference in Rome to ask for more aid having derailed an independent selection process backed by the country\u2019s Western allies. The Ukrainian government is facing a sharp backlash after rejecting a candidate picked by an independent commission to lead an agency tasked with investigating economic crimes. The Bureau of Economic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[149,200],"tags":[550,552,599],"experts":[642],"news_type":[179],"class_list":["post-35256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs-en","category-news-list-en","tag-corruption-en","tag-rule-of-law-en","tag-international-support-en","experts-bohdan-slutskyi","news_type-blog-type"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35259,"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35256\/revisions\/35259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35256"},{"taxonomy":"experts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/experts?post=35256"},{"taxonomy":"news_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_type?post=35256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}