Third Attempt to Form the Expert Group for the Accounting Chamber Competition

The Verkhovna Rada will soon make its third attempt to vote on establishing the Advisory Group of Experts (AGE) that is to run the competition for positions of Accounting Chamber members. 

For almost two years, the Accounting Chamber has been operating with a reduced membership, with more than half of its positions vacant. The situation was supposed to be fixed through a competition launched after the adoption of the new law reforming the institution in December 2024. However, since June 2025, the Verkhovna Rada has been unable to pass a vote on establishing the AGE. The issue is pressing: it concerns not only renewing the Accounting Chamber’s membership but also fulfilling Ukraine’s commitments to international partners, which are a condition for financial assistance. 

The updated list of candidates differs substantially from the previous one. It includes as many as five new nominees:

• Hlib Vyshlinsky, Executive Director of Centre for Economic Strategy NGO
• Andrii Zhupanyn, former Member of Parliament of the ninth convocation who served as Deputy Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy, Housing and Utilities Services
• Tetiana Kamenska, Chair of the Audit Chamber of Ukraine and Professor at the Department of Accounting, Audit and Taxation of the National Academy of Statistics, Accounting and Audit
• Mykola Marchenko, First Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction
• Nataliia Pashuk, Assistant and Consultant to a Member of Parliament.

The only candidate retained from the previous submission is Myroslava Masliak, Senior Lecturer at Kharkiv National University of Economics and Assistant-Consultant to a Member of Parliament. Notably, her candidacy failed to win the required number of MPs’ votes in both previous rating votes.

The Verkhovna Rada must choose three of the proposed candidates and vote to establish the Advisory Group of Experts. In addition to the Ukrainian experts, the group will include three international experts.

Reputation and experience

The law sets out a number of requirements for the experts who will select Accounting Chamber members. First and foremost, they must have at least five years of experience in state control (audit), economics, finance, or law, as well as an impeccable business reputation, high professional and moral qualities, and public standing. 

Some candidates raise questions as to whether they meet these requirements.

For example, in 2024, Bihus.Info journalists found that during the full-scale war, Andrii Zhupanyn regularly traveled abroad to study at London Business School and to vacation with his wife, including during plenary sessions and votes in the Verkhovna Rada. Zhupanyn himself explained the trips as either work for the parliamentary friendship group between Ukraine and the United Kingdom or vacation. MPs are not allowed to travel abroad for any reason other than work. However, the journalists were unable to find any evidence of Zhupanyn’s working meetings during that period.

Also in 2024, following a full review of Andrii Zhupanyn’s asset declaration for 2023, the NACP questioned the candidate’s explanations of the origin of his wife’s declared assets: UAH 1.5 million, USD 182,000, EUR 195,000, and GBP 130,000 in cash. His wife explained that these were savings from her father’s business activities. In addition, the NACP found that the candidate had reported inaccurate information in the same declaration, but because the amount involved was insignificant, no signs of an offense were established. 

In view of this, there are doubts about whether the candidate meets the requirements of an impeccable business reputation and high moral qualities.

Similar doubts concern Tetiana Kamenska. In July 2021, the media published an investigation into the candidate, her assets, and her influence on the auditing profession’s self-governance. In particular, the author of the piece claimed that Kamenska, while serving simultaneously as Chair of the Audit Chamber and Chair of the Auditor Certification Commission, may have used a significant increase in the number of certificates issued to secure support for her own re-election as Chair of the Chamber. However, the journalists did not provide clear evidence to support their suspicions.

The publication also reported that Kamenska had purchased a private house and a land plot in the village of Bobrytsia near Kyiv. According to the author, she bought the house for UAH 702,000, while its market value allegedly exceeded UAH 8 million. Notably, instead of filing a lawsuit to refute these allegations, the candidate filed a complaint with the Commission on Journalism Ethics NGO, which, among other things, did not rule out that the value of the land plot stated in the publication had been understated. The Commission also found that the piece violated several journalistic standards, in particular balance of opinions and the separation of facts from opinion.

Insiders on the panel

The updated list of candidates for the Advisory Group of Experts makes it even clearer that MPs intend to include people affiliated with them. At least two of the candidates, Nataliia Pashuk and Myroslava Masliak, are current assistant-consultants to MPs. Moreover, Masliak is an assistant to the chair of the parliamentary Subcommittee on State Financial Control and the Activities of the Accounting Chamber. 

Mykola Marchenko is also connected to the ruling party through his work in its faction’s secretariat. In addition, according to the candidate’s asset declarations, for several years he and his wife did not declare corporate rights they held, even though they had acquired them earlier.

Although the law does not explicitly bar MPs’ assistants or employees of political party faction secretariats, involving them in the Advisory Group of Experts creates a risk of political and governmental influence on the selection.

Whom to choose?

There is one candidate on the list who raises no such concerns: Hlib Vyshlinsky. He also has experience that may be relevant when assessing whether candidates meet the professional competence criteria. 

The list of international candidates remains unchanged. It includes:

• Igors Ludboržs (Latvia) — former Member and Dean of the European Court of Auditors 
• Pascal Muñier (France) — Honorary Magistrate of the French Court of Auditors
• Lee Sumerfield (United Kingdom) — Director of Responsive Audit and Investigations at UK National Audit Office.

The mandatory participation of international representatives, who make up half of the Advisory Group of Experts and hold the decisive vote, provides a certain guarantee of an objective competitive selection. However, this mechanism does not relieve parliament of its responsibility to select its own quota of candidates properly. We therefore urge Members of Parliament to weigh the experience and reputation of all candidates carefully and to select the most qualified experts for the Advisory Group. 

The Accounting Chamber is responsible for ensuring that public funds are spent effectively, which is especially important during the full-scale war. International partners clearly understand this; they have been recommending for years that Ukraine unblock the competition. We very much hope that, by now, our parliamentarians have come to understand it too.