The participants of the coalition of civil society organizations Reanimation Package of Reforms, AutoMaidan, Anti-Corruption Action Centre and Transparency International Ukraine propose to the members of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to consider the following candidates for the positions of NABU auditors: Martha Boersch, the prosecutor who led to the imprisonment of Pavlo Lazarenko, Carlos Catresana, a Spanish prosecutor who arrested 150 influential leaders of Guatemala for corruption, and Giovanni Kessler, an Italian prosecutor who is also Director General of the European Anti-Fraud Office.
The Cabinet of Ministers started the selection process of a candidate who will be tasked with controlling the efficiency of the National Anti-corruption Bureau’s activities and must conduct the first independent audit of its operation since its establishment.
Martha Boersch is a Russian-speaking American prosecutor who worked twelve years as a federal prosecutor in the Northern District of California and obtained the arrest of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko.
Carlos Catresana is a Spanish prosecutor who headed the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) and put in prison 150 influential leaders of this country for corruption. Among these figure former President Alfonso Portillo, three ex-Ministers of Foreign Affairs, four out of the five army generals, three directors of the national police, businessmen, congressmen, drug dealers, and traffickers. The CICIG is the equivalent of the National Anti-corruption Bureau in Ukraine.
Giovanni Kessler is an Italian prosecutor and the Director-General of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), which is tasked with protecting the financial interests of the European Union by investigating fraud, corruption and any other illegal activities. Kessler’s candidacy was put forward by the EU in Ukraine and recommended to the Government by the Committee on Corruption Prevention and Counteraction. Kessler was also a member of the Competition Commission for the selection of candidates for the post of NABU Director. His participation ensured that the committee’s work and results were transparent and unbiased.
The legislation of Ukraine has very strict requirements for the candidates for the positions of NABU auditors: they must have extensive work experience in pre-trial investigative bodies, prosecutor’s office, international courts or international organizations.
“The experience, reputation and professional ethics of these candidates would allow to objectively assess the first two years of work of the new anti-corruption body. In Ukraine, it will be the first time that such an assessment takes place. It is important that these “pioneers” have experience in unbiased criminal investigations of corruption cases, as it is them who will have to set very high standards for all forthcoming audits that NABU must annually pass,” stated Daryna Kaleniuk, Executive Director of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre, explaining the choice of foreign activists-experts.
The international experts proposed by the activists are recognized professionals who are now at the head or have been heading for many years international law enforcement bodies specialized in the fight against corruption and in money laundering counteraction. Their practical experience is unique for Ukraine, where specialized anti-corruption investigative authorities where created only a few years ago.
“The reputation of the proposed candidates, their many years of experience and their neutrality concerning the Ukrainian political environment will guarantee the fairness, transparency and objectivity of the auditors’ work,” – explained the Executive Director of Transparency International Ukraine Yaroslav Yurchyshyn. “People should have confidence in the auditors’ conclusions both inside the country and beyond. Many NABU’s investigations concern money laundering abroad. It is very difficult to investigate such offences without international legal assistance by international colleagues, and their trust, among other things, is based on the objective assessment of the work of law enforcement bodies,” concluded Yurchyshyn.
