From Critic of Competitions for Public Office to Candidate for the Commission on the Accounting Chamber

The competition to fill six vacant positions in the Accounting Chamber formally began last December with the adoption of a law reforming the institution. However, progress has stalled: for four months, the Verkhovna Rada has been unable to form the Advisory Group of Experts (AGE) responsible for selecting candidates. In early September, a new draft resolution establishing the AGE was registered in parliament and may be considered at the nearest plenary session.

The list of candidates nominated by international partners remains unchanged:

–       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.

There are, however, changes to the list of candidates proposed by parliamentary factions and groups. In particular, European Solidarity has nominated a new candidate. Instead of former Accounting Chamber member Iryna Ivanova, the faction proposed Borys Kushniruk.

According to the Budget Committee’s submission, Kushniruk works as an outsourced consultant-analyst. His declared areas of expertise are broad, covering macroeconomics, finance, banking, housing and utilities, the gas market, the pension system, agriculture, and politics. A review of media publications and appearances under his authorship expands this list further — law enforcement, procurement, nuclear energy, freight transport, pharmaceutical pricing, and competition policy in business. At the same time, open sources indicate that he has no professional experience in public financial control (audit).

In July 2023, Kushniruk published a blog post entitled “Our Competitions for Recruitment Are Nothing but Dog Crap!” in which he criticized the use of competition commissions and the very idea of open recruitment for positions in government bodies. Yet two years later, he has changed his stance and agreed to take part in the selection to the AGE.

This inconsistency can also be seen in other topics he actively comments on. In March of this year, Kushniruk published a piece criticizing NABU’s work and citing calls for its liquidation. Yet by August, during a television appearance, he spoke about the need to restore NABU’s procedural independence.

Such contradictions raise doubts about the candidate’s moral integrity, which the law explicitly requires of AGE members.

Overall, the new list of candidates is shorter, as the Holos party did not put forward a nominee. As a result, five candidates remain in the final list.

Alongside Kushniruk, they include:

•     Oleksandr Rozhko — PhD in Economics, Professor at the Department of Finance, Faculty of Economics, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
•     Myroslava Masliak — Assistant to a Member of Parliament, PhD, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Public Administration, Public Policy and Economic Policy, Semen Kuznets Kharkiv National University of Economics
•     Oleksandr Boiko — Certified Auditor and President of Public Union “Chamber of Auditors and Accountants of Ukraine,” former Deputy Chair of the Audit Chamber of Ukraine
•     Liudmyla Lovinska — PhD in Economics, Head of the Department of Tax Management and Financial Monitoring, Vadym Hetman Kyiv National University of Economics.

TI Ukraine has previously highlighted the risks of appointing Myroslava Masliak to the AGE. While the law does not directly prohibit parliamentary assistants from serving, their involvement creates risks of political or governmental influence over the selection process. This could undermine trust in the competition procedure and negate the very purpose of establishing the AGE — to serve as an independent safeguard against bias and political pressure.

It is also notable that, with the exception of Kushniruk, all other candidates were already considered in the previous vote, which parliament failed to pass. Only six votes were missing to reach a decision. 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.