The Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko stated that the heads of all law enforcement agencies, with the exception of the Bureau of Economic Security (BES), should develop a common work model and determine what changes to the laws will be needed for this.
He said this at a meeting with journalists, reports a Babel correspondent.
Next week, the heads of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutorʼs Office (SAPO), the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) , and the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) will meet at the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office.
"The President gave us two weeks for meetings, for negotiations, so that in two weeks we could come to him and say how we will work, what changes are needed so that we can work without duplicating functions. We are preparing our proposals that need to be included in the legislation," Klymenko noted and added that at a meeting in the Presidentʼs Office, the above-mentioned leaders voiced their opinions on this issue.
According to him, according to the Constitution, it is the Prosecutor General who should bear full responsibility: "One Prosecutor General — one decision".
"Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko and I talked about the general situation in the state, what we need to do together to maintain peace. And it is important not to shift the emphasis. We must first of all talk about stability at the front, about stability in the rear. And about compliance with the rule of law, in particular anti-corruption. It is clear that those people who violated anti-corruption legislation must be punished. NABU and SAPO have not been liquidated, they continue to work," the minister said.
Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that he will propose to the Verkhovna Rada a new draft law on the work of anti-corruption bodies and expects proposals from the heads of law enforcement and anti-corruption bodies on the norms that should work.
What is happening with NABU and SAPO?
On July 22, the Verkhovna Rada adopted, and President Volodymyr Zelensky signed, Law No. 12414, which amends the Criminal Code of Ukraine. In fact, the law limits the exclusive right of NABU and the SAPO to investigate cases of top corrupt officials. Among other things, the Prosecutor General will be granted the following powers:
- to take cases from NABU and entrust the investigation to other bodies;
- be the de facto head of SAPO and delegate the powers of the SAPO prosecutor to other prosecutors;
- provide the NABU detectives with mandatory written instructions;
- independently close cases on suspicion of top officials.
Amendments are also envisaged that will limit the activities of SAPO, namely:
- the SAPO prosecutors will not be able to determine NABUʼs jurisdiction in certain cases;
- the head of SAPO will not be able to resolve disputes about investigation in cases that can be investigated by NABU;
- The head of SAPO will not have the authority to amend appeals and cassation complaints filed by the SAPO prosecutors.
NABU and SAPO emphasized that if the document is adopted, the head of SAPO will become a nominal figure, and NABU will lose its independence and turn into a unit of the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office. In Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, and Dnipro, people took to the streets to protest against the bill. Today, July 23, the protests continued and spread to other cities in Ukraine.
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