The Ukrainian government is facing a sharp backlash after rejecting a candidate picked by an independent commission to lead an agency tasked with investigating economic crimes.
The Bureau of Economic Security was created in 2021 but has been accused of extorting businesses. In recent years, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund have made reform of the bureau a condition for continued aid payments.
As part of the reform process, an independent commission chose Oleksandr Tsyvinskyi, an anti-corruption detective who earlier this year exposed a major land corruption case in Kyiv, to lead the bureau.
But on Monday the government announced it would not appoint Tsyvinskyi to the position and instead asked the commission to pick two other candidates.
Civil society groups and lawmakers say the government’s actions are illegal, threaten the independence of law enforcement, and jeopardize international aid — just as Ukrainian officials head from Kyiv to Rome to tout the country’s reforms and plead for more funding at a major recovery conference.
The cabinet, which is led by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, cited “national security” concerns regarding Tsyvinskyi, whose father is Russian. Tsyvinskyi, who has held a security clearance for over a decade and was cleared again during the selection process, says he hasn’t spoken with his father in years.
Even Anastasia Radina, an independent-minded lawmaker from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party who leads the anti-corruption committee in the country’s parliament, wrote on social media that the government had no legal authority to reject the commission’s pick.
The government did not immediately respond to a request by POLITICO for comment, but in announcing its decision claimed it “fully corresponded” with the law.
But critics of the government’s move said Zelenskyy had in fact opposed Tsyvinskyi’s nomination.
“Tsivinsky does not fit [Zelenskyy’s office] because he is independent,” said anti-corruption activist Martyna Bohuslavets.
Of the six-person commission, all three members nominated by Ukraine’s Western partners supported Tsyvinskyi’s candidacy, while all three members chosen by the government voted against him.
Opposition lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak also claimed the president’s office was behind the decision, saying Zelenskyy had decided to crack down on independent elements within law enforcement after his top ally, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, was charged with corruption last month.
While the bureau was created partly to prevent law enforcement from extorting businesses, Bohdan Slutsky of Ukraine’s Centre for Economic Strategy think tank said nothing had changed in practice since its founding.
A reform passed by the country’s parliament last year gave the bureau another shot, but critics say the government has now derailed it by refusing to confirm Tsyvinskyi.
Dozens of Ukrainian anti-corruption activists, leading business associations and economic think tanks have urged Zelenskyy and the government to reverse course and appoint Tsyvinskyi to the post.
In addition to the need to follow the law and observe due process, Slutsky said, without reform and in the wrong hands, the agency will continue subjecting firms to costly legal battles, unjustified raids and bureaucratic harassment.
Good name in danger
On June 26, G7 ambassadors to Ukraine praised the selection process for the bureau chief and hailed the reform as vital for improving Ukraine’s business climate and attracting investment.
Two weeks later, the Ukrainian government refused to appoint the declared winner.
An informal deadline to complete the process arrives Thursday when the high-profile Ukraine Recovery Conference begins in Rome, according to lawmaker Radina. The IMF has formally extended the deadline to the end of July, but Ukraine still risks funding delays and embarrassment at the summit, lawmakers and activists warn.
The European Commission and the IMF did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.
The Ukrainian government previously stalled the appointment of a new head of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office — also chosen by an independent commission — for almost two years before yielding to pressure from Brussels in 2022.
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