On June 1, the second day of interviews was held as part of the call for the election of the SAPO leadership. And again, just like yesterday, none of the 4 candidates made it to the next stage.
The first candidate was Anton Voitenko, head of the Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office. The reputation of this candidate raised many questions among the commission members.
First comes the question of an undeclared car worth UAH 120,000. Interestingly, in 4 years Voitenko did indicate income from the sale of this particular car to his father — UAH 150,000. Voitenko explained this transaction to the commission by saying that over the years of operation, comprehensive repairs were carried out, which significantly increased its cost.
The second question, no less important. It concerns both Voitenko and his deputy in the previous position in the Rivne Regional Prosecutor’s Office — Roman Pavlenko. He used to work as the head of the Uman Local Prosecutor’s Office of the Cherkasy region and is infamous for being mentioned in numerous media materials on corruption.
In contrast to the media, the public, and other representatives of the prosecutor’s network, Voitenko described his deputy as an experienced, balanced, tolerant, and sociable employee who “is an expert in tasks and problematic issues.” The commission was also interested in this discrepancy. But the candidate’s answers didn’t convince it.
As far as Oleksii Heiko is concerned, the commission had many questions about his staying abroad, despite the fact that most of the time these were business trips. Some in the commission even asked what kind of experience Heiko had adopted there, probably doubting that such practices exist in Europe at all.
However, the commission’s opinions were divided here because there were very few really serious reasons to doubt his reputation.
As far as Vadym Hirenko is concerned, the commission voted against him unanimously. In addition to serious doubts about his integrity, the candidate’s numerous disciplinary proceedings and questions about his wife’s business in Crimea played a decisive role in the decision.
And the last candidate was Maksym Hryshchuk. Many people saw this candidate as the future head of the SAPO because he is now the acting head of this institution since August 2020. Before that, since 2015, Hryshchuk held the position of the First Deputy Head of the SAPO.
Although there were questions about candidate’s declaration, Hryshchuk provided detailed explanations to the commission, moreover, he is ready to provide public explanations.
Of course, Hryshchuk was asked about the letter that he had signed in 2018 as a sign of alleged support for the then SAPO head, Nazar Kholodnytskyi. “I signed that letter not in support of the head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, but in support of prosecutors in general,” explained Hryshchuk. According to him, he committed this act precisely as a sign of support for his subordinates.
But the SAPO commission was not convinced. In addition, members of the commission recalled Hryshchuk’s unsuccessful passing of the polygraph and SAPO’s cooperation with civil society organizations.
As we can see, the commission is quite strict with candidates regarding the requirements of integrity. Will anyone be worthy enough today? We’ll see very soon, and you will be the first to know.
Volodymyr Hulkevych, Yaroslav Doroshenko, Adrian Dutkovskyi and Vitalii Diurd will be interviewed on June 2.
