On February 15, the Cabinet of Ministers has out of turn considered a draft law dismissing the current Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) Artem Sytnyk.
This was announced by the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Action Center Vitaly Shabunin on his Facebook page, the information was confirmed to the publication Ukrainska Pravda by the representative of the government in the Verkhovna Rada Vitaly Mokan.
According to Shabunin, the amendment on Sytnyk's dismissal was added to the bill that changes the procedure for electing a new director of the department, it was proposed by one of the Ministers. He also added that such a procedure guarantees President Volodymyr Zelensky to elect the director of NABU, who will be under his control.
"According to our information, Sytnyk’s dismissal is a personal decision of Volodymyr Zelensky. In this way the latter reacted to the start of an inquiry into the purchase of vaccines from COVID-19. I don't really understand what or who Zelensky is controlled by. Does he want to blame Sytnyk on vaccination failure? Does he really believe that this is the responsibility of the Director of NABU? The production was registered a few days ago and even a single investigative action (search, seizure of documents—nothing) has not been carried out," Shabunin said, adding that this story will lead to the fact that international partners will finally lose confidence in Ukraine.
He named the following consequences:
- Ukraine will not receive the next tranche from the International Monetary Fund;
- the country will not have normal relations with the United States, and therefore rapprochement with NATO.
- the number of problems with European integration will also increase.
Mokan, in his commentary to Ukrainska Pravda, explained that the matter concerns the draft law "On the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine" regarding bringing it into line with the Constitution of Ukraine". He added that the government supported him and would send him "with refinement" to the Rada for registration.
Context. Earlier, the Deputy Head of the Office of the President, Oleh Tatarov, got into a scandal over his statement about the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and its chairman Artem Sytnyk.
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