EBA urges Ukrainian Parliament to reconsider bill on Economic Security Bureau reform
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The business community in Ukraine does not support bill No. 10439, recently backed by the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s Parliament) Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, which aims to reform the Economic Security Bureau (BES), the European Business Association (EBA) said in its Feb. 22 statement.
“The business community has repeatedly emphasized that the country urgently needs a real reform of the BES,” the EBA said.
“It is important to ensure the creation of a transparent and independent body that will seek out and punish real economic criminals, instead of being controlled by dubious curators and exerting pressure on transparent companies.”
“The business community is demanding a fresh start for the BES. It is therefore important that the Competition Commission and the Supervisory Board include foreign representatives and representatives of civil society institutions in the selection of the head of the BES. It is important that the old staff undergo a clearly regulated recertification procedure (so that dishonest employees (former tax police officers) cannot get into the renewed body.”
It is important that the reformed office has purely analytical functions and that only this structure is involved in the investigation of economic crimes. It is also important that this structure effectively performs an analytical function to investigate economic crimes.
The EBA appeals to the relevant parliamentary committee to reconsider its decision and support the alternative bill No. 10439-2, which has also been recommended by international and local experts, the G7, and business representatives.
“In addition, we ask the lawmakers to prevent manipulations and not to adopt the government bill (No. 10439), which cements the old scheme of manual control of the body,” the EBA wrote.
On Sept. 25, the Verkhovna Rada registered the bill No. 10088 on priority measures for the reform of the BES. This bill received positive feedback from the business community.
At the end of December, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the bill providing for a new start of the Bureau a year after the end of the war.
On Feb. 1, the EBA appealed to the Parliament’s Chairman, Ruslan Stefanchuk, not to proceed with the vote.
Earlier, the civic movement Manifesto 42 said that the government had submitted to the Verkhovna Rada bills Nos. 10439 and 10440 on the reform of the BES without final approval and without taking into account the comments submitted by business organizations.
In this regard, the movement called on the President and the Government to prevent the violation of the principles of compromise, which resulted in the cancellation of the warning protest against the arbitrariness of the rear security forces against business.
On Feb. 15, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with members of the Council for Support of Entrepreneurship under Martial Law to discuss the reduction of law enforcement pressure on legal businesses, the principles of the work of the Economic Security Bureau (ESBU), as well as the need to support defense industry enterprises, and amendments to legislation.
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