Lawmakers voted to create the BES / Photo from UNIAN
The bill suggests disbanding tax police.
A draft law on the creation of the Bureau of Economic Security (BES), which will be engaged in preventing, identifying, investigating, and solving crimes related to public funds, has passed its reading and was adopted as a whole by the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament.
Corresponding bill No3087-d was backed by 242 lawmakers with the required minimum being 226 votes, according to an UNIAN correspondent.
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According to the explanatory note, only detectives of the Bureau will be able to investigate violations that are within the BES' authority.
"Other pretrial investigation agencies will not be allowed to carry out pretrial probe into [the respective] criminal offenses. Other law enforcement agencies, if they obtain information about a possible crime falling within the BES' authority, will be obliged to include the information in the State Register of Pretrial Investigations and, within three working days, the prosecutor is obliged to transfer all materials of the criminal proceedings to the BES for further pretrial investigation," the document says.
An internal oversight department will function as part of the BES to prevent, detect and respond appropriately to manifestations of corruption, as well as to monitor who BES workers comply with professional and ethics standards.
In addition, the bill suggests disbanding tax police, as well as units of counterintelligence protection of the interests of the state in the field of economic security under the SBU Security Service.
The bill prepared for the first reading proposed that the BES' director would be appointed by the president for five years after the selection commission nominated its candidate for the position.
However, the document was amended for the second reading. It now stipulates that the director will be selected via open competition and will be appointed by the Cabinet of Ministers after nomination by the Prime Minister.