Rada may approve IMF-criticized bill to dismiss NABU head

Ukraine’s parliament has scheduled a special session for
July 14 to consider the approval of bill #3133 that enables the dismissal of
Artem Sytnyk, the director of the National Anticorruption Bureau (NABU), MP
Yaroslav Zhelezniak wrote in his blog on July 13. The measure widens the list
of reasons the NABU head can be dismissed (in addition to a dismissal  at
his request, if the special audit commission evaluates his performance as
ineffective, or if he is convicted of a criminal offense), to court ruling
 finding him responsible for corruption.

If a bill is approved, Sytnyk can be theoretically
dismissed based on a precedent set by a Rivne appellate court ruling in
December 2019 convicting him of a crime of corruption. The incident involved
Sytnyk failing to pay a bill for UAH 25,000 for recreation and failing to
provide information on this in his e-declaration. Sytnyk denied any wrongdoings
related to this episode.

Recall, the IMF warned Ukraine’s top officials in
April that approval of bill #3133 would threaten the fund’s cooperation with Ukraine.
“Any legislative changes that restrict NABU’s independence will be perceived as
a withdrawal from prior anti-corruption requirements,” the IMF wrote. Recall,
on June 9, the IMF approved a new SBA loan program
with Ukraine for USD 5 bln and disbursed the first tranche under the program,
worth USD 2.1 bln.

Alexander Paraschiy: Sytnyk and
the head of the specialized anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, Nazar
Kholodnytskiy, remain the only top Ukrainian officials that have preserved
their positions since the time of Poroshenko’s presidency. So they can be
considered as independent from President Zelensky. Recall, in early July, the
parliament dismissed two other top officials
from the Poroshenko era: the heads of the antimonopoly committee and the
central bank. The latter dismissal raised questions about the independence of
the National Bank and, consequently, has put under risk Ukraine’s cooperation
with IFIs.

If parliament moves forward today with bill #3133, it
will only further aggravate tensions with IFIs. Although the law can’t be
applied retroactively (meaning its approval won’t allow for automatically
dismissing Sytnyk), it would be relatively easy to “produce” a court
ruling similar to the one produced by the Rivne court. So, the sole fact of the
bill’s approval can very likely put on hold any multilateral financial support
for Ukraine. This will be yet another risk factor for Ukraine’s financial
stability.