Bill on Ukraine's Bureau of Economic Security tabled for second reading

The Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy has endorsed a bill on setting up the Bureau of Economic Security and submitted it to parliament for its second reading.

This decision was made at a committee meeting on September 28.

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The committee also approved the composition of the selection committee, which will decide on the appointment of the new bureau's head. It will include nine people – three from the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), the Verkhovna Rada, and the Cabinet of Ministers each.

Who will head the Bureau

The committee also listed requirements for a candidate to be nominated for the post of the bureau's director. This should be a citizen of Ukraine who is at least 35 years old with a university degree in law and/or university decree in economics, with at least 10 years of work experience in the said fields and at least five years of experience in senior positions in government agencies, enterprises, institutions, or organizations.

The committee did not support the idea of creating a competence center or a training center as part of the new bureau, as well as rejecting the need for those who have applied to work for the bureau to undergo the compulsory lie detector tests.

Investigating economic crimes

The bill proposes that the SBU Security Service of Ukraine be stripped of functions of investigating economic crimes, yet the SBU could be authorized to conduct counterintelligence in the economic sphere.

Background

• On September 3, a draft law designed to create the Bureau of Economic Security passed its first reading. The new agency's tasks will be to prevent, identify, suppress, investigate and solve crimes related to public funds.
• When introducing the document, MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak said that the adoption of the document would put an end to law enforcement agencies' influence on businesses.
• "The National Police, the Security Service of Ukraine, the Tax Police, the Prosecutor's Office [should no longer investigate economic crimes]. Instead, one analytical agency should be set up to force businesses into complying with legislation, using the language of numbers rather than that of guns. In 2019, as many as 1,300 cases were opened against entrepreneurs on charges of tax evasion, and a mere 10 cases ended up in court with a verdict," he said.