The Commission for the Election of the Director of BES has fulfilled its mandate, and Ukraine, in turn, must appoint the Director of the Bureau by the end of this month to fulfill its obligations to IMF.
This was stated at a press conference by the head of the commission Laura Stefan, reports Babel.
She recalled that the commission re-sent all of Oleksandr Tsyvinskyʼs documents to the government because it had exhausted its mandate and acted in accordance with the law.
"Ukraine has an agreement with IMF, which stipulates that the appointment of the BES director should take place by the end of this month," Stefan noted.
"No one trusts a country just because it creates legislation, everyone looks at how the country implements that legislation," she added.
Another member of the commission James Wasserstrom added that the government has no room for maneuver. It must appoint the proposed candidate.
Speaking about the actions of SBU, another member of the commission Donatas Malaskevichius called the SBUʼs attempt to influence the commissionʼs decision "unacceptable". The commission members do not know what documents the SBU sent to the government and on what basis it decided to return the candidacy.
Answering questions about SBU letter, the commission members noted that SBU began the check back in April and only at the end of June, an hour and a half before the meeting at which the winner of the SBU competition was to be announced, did it send its information regarding the relatives of the three candidates, but not the candidates themselves.
"Both SBU and the public have known about Tsyvinskyʼs fatherʼs [Russian] passport since 2023, when he participated in the competition for the position of NABU director. SBU does not specifically say that this is a security threat — they said that they will continue to work on studying the information. All 16 candidates passed a special check, and no one canceled its results. In addition, Tsyvinsky worked for 20 years in law enforcement agencies and had access to state secrets", Stefan noted, adding that Tsyvinskyʼs father had not lived with the family since Oleksandr was a child.
Stefan also noted that the commission may not have chosen the perfect candidate, but "they chose the best of all [who participated in the competition]".
“I looked for those who could withstand pressure and those who had fewer questions [about integrity — questions about real estate, influence, questionable decisions or actions],” she added.
What preceded
At the end of June, the competition for the position of director of the BES was won by the detective of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) Oleksandr Tsyvinsky. His candidacy was submitted for consideration by the government on June 30.
On July 7, it became known that the government did not approve Tsyvinsky for the position of director of BES — and is asking the commission to resubmit the candidacy. The commission refused to review the winnerʼs candidacy.
Tsyvinsky himself claims that for him it is “a matter of principle” to find out what “security assessments” were the basis for the authorities’ respective decision. He stated that as a law enforcement officer he “successfully passed all SBU inspections” for 10 years, and also served in the Main Intelligence Directorate (known as GUR) of the Ministry of Defense since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
In an appeal published on the website of the Institute for Socio-Economic Transformation (ISET), more than 50 public organizations called on the new government to appoint Oleksandr Tsyvinsky as the new director of BES.
On July 24, the Selection Commission for the head of BES resubmitted documents on the appointment of Tsyvinsky to the Cabinet of Ministers. The MP from “Voice” Yaroslav Zheleznyak reported on July 20 that the government had not appointed Tsyvinsky to the position.
- On June 20, 2024, the Verkhovna Rada adopted in the second reading a bill on the reboot of BES. The bill provides for mandatory recertification of employees, and also establishes that international partners will have the decisive voice in the selection and recertification of employees.
- The law stipulates that the new head of BES must be elected by a commission of six members, half of whom are international experts with the right to cast a decisive vote.
- Rebooting the Bureau of Economic Security is one of the conditions for Ukraine in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Extended Fund Facility. EU support is also tied to this reform.
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