Semyon Krivonos
The Cabinet of Ministers today, March 6, has picked a new boss for the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. They chose Semyon Krivonos as the boss.
This is reported RBC-Ukraine with reference to the broadcast of the government meeting.
“Semyon Krivonos has just been appointed chief of the bureau at an extraordinary meeting. This process was preceded by a transparent competition, following which the commission, which, in particular, consisted of international partners, identified three candidates for the position of director of NABU”, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
It should be noted that at first the prime minister nominated Krivonos for the post of director of NABU, and after that his appointment was supported by the government.
At the same time, the government offered to appoint two other finalists of the competition, who were also one step away from appointment, to senior positions in NABU. We are talking about Sergei Gupyak and Roman Osipchuk.
Why is it important
As Shmyhal explained, Ukraine has now complied with all seven EU recommendations that were identified when obtaining candidate status.
“This demonstrates our determination to move to the start of accession negotiations this year. By appointment of the director of NABU, we also have a fully formed and independent anti-corruption infrastructure,” the prime minister said.
Semyon Krivonos. Briefly about the new director of NABU
Note that Semyon Krivonos heads the State Inspectorate for Architecture and Urban Planning. In 2016, he became the winner of the competition for the head of the Odessa territorial organization of NABU, but resigned after the scandal with declaring his fortune.
What is known about Gupyak and Osipchuk
Sergey Hupyak – works as the head of the 4th investigative department of the Territorial Directorate of the State Bureau of Investigations in Khmelnitsky, and before joining the State Bureau of Investigation, he worked in the prosecutor’s office.
Photo: Sergey Gupyak (sud.ua)
Roman Osipchuk is the head of the Internal Control Department of NABU, and in 2004-2015 he worked in the divisions of the State Service for Combating Economic Crime of the Departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Lugansk and Kyiv regions.
Photo: Roman Osipchuk (sud.ua)
Recall that on the eve of the Competition Commission for the selection of the director of NABU elected three contenders for this position, namely Semyon Krivonos, Sergey Gupyak and Roman Osipchuk. Of which today the Cabinet of Ministers chose Semyon Krivonos as the winner.
And here is what he writes about this ZN:
Zero experience and connections with Yermak’s deputy: Cabinet of Ministers elected Semyon Krivonos as NABU director
The Cabinet of Ministers has decided on a candidate who will take position of director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. The new head of NABU Semyon Krivonos. This decision was taken by the government during an extraordinary meetingsMarch, 6.
Semyon Krivonos was the head of the State Inspectorate for Architecture and Urban Planning. Moreover, the newly created GIAM, which came to replace the corrupt State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate, catastrophically exacerbated the condition for regular people and small businesses leading the construction of CC1 (90% of all facilities).
As the expert pointed out Grigory Mogilny in an article for ZN.UA “Corruption arising from digitalization”, the hands of regular workers were liberated, a decree signed on the first day of the work of the new body by Semyon Krivonos as the head of GIAM. Specifically, on September 16 last year, he approved the Information Card of the administrative service for registering a message. And this information card at the same time establishes that there are no reasons for not providing the service, but as a result of the provision of the service, you can receive a notification about the return of the document for revision.
So, as the expert mentioned, Semyon Krivonos personally allowed his subordinates to seriously violate the legislation of Ukraine and return it for revision, which was subject only to mandatory registration with the USESB.
At the same time, in early February last year, at the request of Krivonos, NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office detained a representative of one of the construction companies in Kyiv, who was trying to give the head of GIAM a bribe of 120 thousand dollars.
Moreover, in January 2022, the European Business Association expressed its gratitude to Krivonos “for a constructive dialogue.” The EBA also noted the efforts of the GIAM leadership to digitalize permitting, conciliation procedures and the system of interaction between architects, developers and regulatory authorities.
In 2016, he became the winner of the competition for the head of the Odessa territorial organization of NABU. However, he quickly resigned from the position when the journalists of Slidstvo.Info discovered that his fortune did not match his income. Specifically, Kryvonos did not declare an apartment in Kyiv worth UAH 3 million, quickly transferring it to his mother.
Additionally, Krivonos’s wife bought the right to claim under a loan agreement for 26.9 million hryvnias for 24.3 thousand hryvnias. The newly appointed head of NABU told the story of the debt on the house. However, he did not explain how such a large debt could be bought for such a low amount. The commission for the selection of the director of NABU did not ask Krivonos any clarifying questions about this.
At the same time, Semyon Krivonos does not hide his camaraderie with the deputy head of the presidential office, Alexei Kuleba. The wife of the new director of NABU led the supply department for Kuleba when he was the first deputy head of the Kyiv city state administration. Kuleba himself, according to the mayor Vitali Klitschko, got into the city authorities thanks to the same head of the OPU Andriy Yermak.
At the same time, Krivonos assured that none of the high-ranking politicians, including those from the OPU, would supposedly be able to influence his decision.
Also, as he writes Anti-Corruption Center, Krivonos has connections with Kuleba’s former business partner at Asper Estate LLC Timur Tkachenko. In the declaration for 2018, Tkachenko indicated that he was using the apartment of Krivonos’s wife in Kyiv. Additionally, the declarations of the new head of NABU indicate that since 2018 he has been using a 2012 Audi Q5 car, owned by Timur Tkachenko’s wife, Anna Tkachenko. At the same time, in the declaration for 2019, Krivonos does not indicate the owners of the car.
In addition to Krivonos, the Cabinet of Ministers received the names of two more candidates:
- Roman Osipchuk – Head of the Internal Control Department of NABU. In 2004-2015, he worked in the divisions of the State Service for Combating Economic Crime of the Departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Lugansk and Kyiv regions;
- Sergei Hupyak – head of the 4th investigative department of the Territorial Directorate of the State Bureau of Investigations in Khmelnitsky. Prior to the State Bureau of Investigation, he worked in the prosecutor’s office.
Recall that the term of office of the previous director of NABU Artem Sytnyk expired on April 16, 2022, and the competition for a new head was announced in November. In early February 2023, the Commission for the Competition for the Position of the Director of NABU changed the procedure for checking for virtue in order to speed up the selection of candidates. The urgency of the appointment of the Director of the Bureau is explained pressure from the EU and the US. At the same time, the completion of the selection and appointment of a new director of NABU and a prosecutor of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office is one of the conditions that Ukraine must fulfill before starting negotiations on joining the EU.
At the end of January, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the directors of NABU will elect already in a week. Probably, they wanted to decide on the head of one of the anti-corruption bodies before the Ukraine-EU summit on February 3. However, even then it was clear that this was impossible, given the number of applicants.
Skeleton.info
