In recent years, the Ukrainian parliament has been losing the ability to effectively control the work of the country's law enforcement agencies, which is becoming a serious problem, notes political scientist Igor Reuterovych.
"The parliament did not have control over these bodies. That is, yes - according to the law it does, it can exercise parliamentary control, call and ask questions, and even make personnel decisions, but in reality, the parliament has no influence on these bodies today. Since their activities are largely coordinated by the OP, partly by the CMU - they are extremely negligent about their obligations to come and report to the people's deputies," the expert said.
At the same time, he noted that the people's deputies cannot formulate their demand in such a way as to force the heads of law enforcement agencies to come to the Rada and report.
"Because of a certain fragmentation and the lack of political will. Because we understand that if they decided to do so, the monomajority could at least summon them without any problems if they posed the question in a tough way. But they don't pose the question in a tough way because they understand that they won't get the answers they expect," Reuterovich believes.
Last week, NABU Director Semen Kryvonos refused to attend a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy to be heard on the progress of the investigation into the leak of information from NABU. The head of the anti-corruption committee, Anastasia Radina, believes that the NABU Director's refusal to attend the committee may be related to the release of a new journalistic investigation into possible leaks involving Kryvonos himself.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine is “famous” for its ability to loudly announce the exposure of another scheme and to declare suspicion against a top official. However, these cases often fall apart in the courts or do not even reach them.
A clear example is the criminal proceedings against former Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan. Both cases collapsed in the courts. However, NABU did not officially apologize to the former minister for the illegal criminal prosecution and damage to his business reputation.
Another recent "high-profile" NABU case, which is raising more and more questions, is the criminal proceedings against the former Minister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Solsky.
The anti-corruption case concerns a dispute over land plots in the Sumy region, however, as it turned out, neither he nor his affiliated persons own the incriminated land. Law enforcement officers did not clarify what exactly the ex-minister took possession of in this case. Moreover, the detectives tried to “drain” the expertise, which they themselves ordered and which, apparently, was supposed to testify to Solsky’s innocence. However, the loud statements have already caused the breakdown of negotiations with the Poles.
