Ukrainian MPs vote to strip two anti-corruption agencies of their independence
Despite widespread criticism from NGOs and rights groups, Ukraine's parliament voted 263 to 13 to place two government anti-corruption agencies, the NABU and SAPO, under the direct authority of the Prosecutor General, who is appointed by the president. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) finds and investigates instances of corruption among state institutions, while the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) prosecutes corruption.
The EU said earlier that it was "concerned about Ukraine's recent action with regard to its anti-corruption institutions," emphasising that the European body "provides significant financial assistance to Ukraine, conditional on progress in transparency, judicial reform and democratic governance."
The Anti-Corruption Action Center, a Ukrainian NGO, said that the law essentially made the anti-corruption agencies meaningless as Ukrainian leader Volodymyr "Zelensky's Prosecutor General will stop investigations into all of the president's friends."
Raids on the anti-corruption bureau
On Monday, law enforcement officers conducted large-scale raids at the NABU, detaining one employee on suspicion of spying for Russia.
The NABU began work in 2015, after a 2014 pro-European protest movement dubbed the Revolution of Dignity, as part of reforms designed to move Kyiv closer to Europe as it fought Moscow-backed separatists in its east.
Transparency International's Ukraine office called the raids an "attempt by the authorities to undermine the independence of Ukraine's post-Revolution of Dignity anti-corruption institutions." Transparency International ranked Ukraine 105 out of 180 countries in its "corruption perceptions index" in 2024, up from 144 in 2013.
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