Civil society coalition “Reanimation Package of Reforms” calls upon the Verkhovna Rada to dismantle the political bodies of their influence on the appointment of the Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau.

On February 3 the Verkhovna Rada approved in the first reading a draft law No. 1660-дon the support of the NAB activities, which was developed, inter alia, by RPR experts. The draft, in particular, suggests to exclude the Verkhovna Rada from the process of appointing the Director of NAB, however, it retains the power of the President to select one person from two or three shortlisted candidates selected by the competition committee.

The influence of politicians over the appointment of the chief of a specialized body entitled to fight against high-level corruption would undermine the independence of such body. The Law on the NAB for the first time for such high level appointments introduced the selection by open competition held by a special committee composed of 9 reputable civil society leaders. This committee should make a final transparent selection and determine the best candidate to be appointed for such an important position.

This very model for the appointment of the Director of the NAB was enshrined in the draft law submitted by the President Petro Poroshenko to the Parliament on September 16, 2014.

We call on the President to be consistent and to waiver his power on selecting among several candidates short-listed by the committee, and we invoke the Verkhovna Rada faction to waiver any forms of influence on the selection of the Director of the NAB.

Moreover, civil society experts also recommend to retain the exhaustive list of reasons for the dismissal of the Director of the NAB as set forth in the Law on the NAB to ensure their independence from any political influence. The possibility to dismiss the Director of the NAB on political grounds makes the new anti-corruption body dependent on the vested interests of political parties or persons and undermine its independence and efficiency.

Reanimation Package of Reforms calls on the Verkhovna Rada to take into account these requirements while adopting the draft law No. 1660-д in the second reading.