The reform of the prosecutor’s office started more than a year ago. It is now called the Office of the Prosecutor General, while oblast branches became Regional Prosecutor’s Offices, and local offices are currently in the transformation stage and they soon should become District Prosecutor’s Offices. In addition to structural changes, the reform initiated a reset of human resources.
Now, it is time to report the results which we have achieved.
Prosecutorial reform
The prosecutor’s office is a unique state institution: on one hand, it is part of the “triangle of justice” defined by the Constitution (with courts and defense attorneys as the other two components), but it is also a law enforcement agency. This is a large mechanism that needs constant improvement.
Why did we need another transformation? We have to admit that our society has a rather low level of trust in the prosecutor’s office and this is what prompted us to launch the reform. In addition, there is a need to upgrade internal systems for efficiency and corruption prevention, as well as for professional growth of employees. I voted for it as a lawmaker and continued the reform when I became the prosecutor general.
I took up my duties after the completion of the first stage — vetting of prosecutors of the central office and the creation of the Office of the Prosecutor General. Some cite it as a successful example because as many as 55% of prosecutors were eliminated. But frankly, the institution was demoralized and only later, it managed to resume effective operation.
Since I took charge, we vetted employees of regional prosecutor’s offices. We did not aim to weed out a specific percentage of people. But it was important to carefully check the professional level of prosecutors and pass them through a very serious integrity filter. The reattestation commissions consist of six members, of which three are prominent reputable members of civil society.
Obviously, it would be incorrect just to deprive the office of workforce just to satisfy our radical agenda, considering that we have about two million active criminal proceedings and failing to proceed with casework would mean failing to comply with the Constitution and the interest of Ukrainian society. We are grateful to the civil society, academia, and donors for their support and valuable contribution in the reforms process.
We are building an effective institution based on the best international standards, so we need the advice of those from whom we can learn. In addition, besides streamlining processes in the institution, we aimed to develop more effective approaches to work. For example, through the support of the Council of Europe, in cooperation with PwC, we conducted a functional and organizational analysis of the work of regional and local prosecutor’s offices. We identified bottlenecks, which slow down processes, and decided to make systemic changes to fix our regulations and practices.
We also created a strategy for the development of the Prosecutor’s Office in the next three years. For the first time in the history of the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office, a strategic session was held, where the document was created by the prosecutors themselves — the people who will live by it. That is important because unless we have a common vision, we will not be able to get there. At every stage of the strategy development, our partners helped us a lot. The process was moderated by Pravo Justice experts, which promote the rule of law in line with European standards and best practices. An operational action plan for the implementation of our strategy is currently being developed.
The strategy will also help to prepare a more global document, which we have already begun to create together with the international partners. It will be called the Strategy for the Development of Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Institutions. In cooperation with our international partners, we also work on the development of modern policy guidelines and standards.
By the end of this year, a new performance evaluation system for prosecutors will be established, which will be merit-based and fair.
A thorough study of the state of crime is also under way. One of the tools is to survey citizens about the offenses they most often face and the areas of work of the law enforcement system that people consider a priority. Based on this study, we will be able to focus coordination efforts and shape a new prosecution policy.
The last, but by far not the least is our work to select the head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. We aimed to ensure that the selection of fair and transparent. Therefore, in cooperation with our international partners, we developed a high-profile international selection commission, which will conduct independent selection.
Next steps
The final stage of the vetting of local prosecutor’s offices — interviews — will start soon. During the first quarter of 2021, we hope to have transformed local prosecutors’ offices into district prosecutors’ offices. In addition, we attract new professionals to work with us — qualified lawyers from outside the system. Two selection waves have already taken place to fill up vacancies in the Office of the Prosecutor General. In the first round, 65 new prosecutors were recruited, followed by 50 professionals in the second selection wave, who successfully passed all selection stages, training and internships and are now recommended for appointment.
We conducted a thorough analysis after the first month of operation of the regional prosecutor’s offices. Even in such a short period of time, we noticed a shift. Cases regarding over 3,000 offenses were submitted to court. In the courts, regional prosecutors litigated for recovery of over Hr 68 billion worth of stolen assets.
Fighting corruption
Fighting corruption is our top priority. During the first month, prosecutors of regional prosecutor’s offices reported suspicion of committing 121 corruption offenses, and 347 indictments were submitted to court.
For us, the main anti-corruption strategy is, first of all, constant effort to expose bribe-takers in our own ranks, because it is useless to count on a conscientious fight against corruption from those who do not mind dirty money themselves.
This year, 22 of our own were prosecuted. This is almost 40% more than last year. There were bribes of all sorts — from a bribe which consisted of two laptops to a $100,000 bribe for “solving problems with the law.” We do not and will not cover up for our own.
We also expose crimes committed by other law enforcement officers. This time 30% more police officers, 75% more security officers and 200% more border protection officers will have to defend themselves in front of a court, compared to the last year.
The self-cleansing of the system is the basis for successful work.
As for top officials, it is the task of specialized anti-corruption bodies to investigate them. That is why we have the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) to deal with the so-called “big fish.” Those specialized agencies will continue receiving our full cooperation and support.
At our level, during nine months of this year, law enforcement officers detected 3,565 corruption offenses, which is over 25% more than last year. For example, municipal council members of all levels were prosecuted five times more often: 91 times compared to 18 in 2019. Altogether, 459 people were convicted of corruption crimes.
New SAPO chief
The anti-corruption prosecutor is a key figure in the fight against corruption. The future head of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office should become the locomotive of this process, and he or she should be a person with high moral, professional qualities and extraordinary ability to work. I am very much looking forward to the election of the head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, who will assume leadership over that important institution and proceed prosecution of corruption with new energy and forces.
The commission for holding an open competition for administrative positions in the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office has started its work. It includes four people appointed by the Council of Prosecutors of Ukraine: Roman Kuybida — prominent Ukrainian lawyer; Nona Tsotsoria — former Judge of the European Court of Human Rights; Drago Kos — former Chairman of GRECO and former Chairman of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption of Slovenia; and Thomas Firestone — American lawyer, who serves at the Baker McKenzie’s Global Compliance & Investigations Steering Committee and who, while working as a US Attorney, prosecuted perpetrators in complex transnational organized crime cases; as well as seven persons appointed by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine: Olena Busol, Andriy Gudzhal, Kateryna Koval, Vyacheslav Navrotsky, Bohdan Romaniuk, Yevhen Sobol, Oleksiy Drozd.
The Office of the Prosecutor General provides the Commission with only organizational and technical support, without interfering in any way with the process. In order to elect an independent and effective anti-corruption prosecutor, it is necessary to ensure the absolute legitimacy of the entire procedure.
We hope that a transparent procedure will be defined soon and the process of submitting documents will follow promptly. Ukraine needs an effective and strong leader of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
Fighting organized crime
Organized crime is a difficult adversary because here it is important to expose all parts of the illegal chain: the organizers, all the participants, which can be up to a hundred, their roles and connections. We put this process on different rails. First of all, a new mechanism for monitoring organized crime was introduced, and a large coordination meeting of law enforcement officials in the city of Zaporizhia located 500 kilometers southeast of Kyiv was held regarding this issue.
In less than a year we conducted three such coordination events, where we thoroughly analyzed the most important topics for the entire law enforcement system and identified common tasks to be implemented, in order to be more effective in these areas. We discussed issues, such as combating torture and illegal handling of weapons. In previous years, such events were held at most once a year, although coordination is one of the main functions of the Prosecutor General and the Prosecutor’s Office.
More systematic methods of combating organized crime led to better results. This year, three times more criminal groups were exposed than last year. In ten months, 16 such dangerous associations were neutralized, while in 2019 — the number was only five. Altogether, 352 criminal groups were detected — this is also more than a quarter higher than last year.
I would like to emphasize that members of organized criminal groups committed almost 3,500 crimes in total: robberies, kidnappings and threats, murders for the purpose of seizing cars, illegal surveillance and sale of wiretaps, arms and drug trafficking, raiding. Our priority is to destroy these organized schemes, including within state authorities, and we are confidently moving towards this goal.
In total, 30 organized groups with corrupt connections were neutralized, including 14 groups operating in government and administration. Police also uncovered 26 criminal groups, which committed crimes in the public sector.
Stolen funds to budget
Representing and defending the interests of the state by recovering stolen state assets is a constitutional function of the prosecutor’s office. Protecting the interests of the state, especially in times of crisis and pandemic is our extremely responsible task. Currently, the prosecutor’s office is defending the interests of the state in court in the value of over Hr 90 billion. We represent the state in litigation, where hundreds of millions from the budget and hectares of valuable land are at stake.
Although court hearings have been paralyzed by quarantine for several months this year, the prosecutor’s office has increased the amount of funds returned to the state, compared to the previous two years. In total, over Hr 30 billion was recovered. The number of cases in which the court has opened proceedings on prosecutors’ claims has almost doubled.
In the last two months alone, with the active participation of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Supreme Court upheld court rulings granting prosecutors’ claims for the return of four property complexes worth nearly Hr 300 million.
Protecting investors
We have created an investment protection unit. That work stream is one of the main ones for the Prosecutor General’s Office. The prosecutor’s office is often perceived as a punitive body, but our function is to protect human rights and freedoms, the common interests of society and the state. In this difficult period, it is very important to protect and preserve the business. To this end, we have created a unit with a task to protect investments.
We keep an eye and hold regular meetings with business representatives and constantly communicate with the largest business associations. After more than 30 such meetings, the relevant Department is reviewing 80 cases to exclude alleged pressure or any possible misconduct.
The most recent example — with the assistance of the Office of the Prosecutor General, the situation with the Mykolayiv Shipyard Okean ended positively. Its assets were unfrozen, and the Supreme Court put an end to the case by recognizing the sale of the plant in 2018 as legal.
Also, the illegal prosecution of a baby food manufacturer has been terminated. We found that in the proceedings against the company, strained legal arguments were used to pressure and seize the company. Our investment protection unit detected and stopped artificial manipulations involving the halt of tax invoices registration and transfer of enterprises to the category of “risky.” Now they can continue their legal economic activity.
There is more work to be done to uphold rule of law, protect and support victims and witnesses of crime. As we move forward, we will continue reporting about our work, challenges, and opportunities.
Iryna Venediktova is the prosecutor general of Ukraine. She took office in March 2020. She is a former acting head of the State Investigation Bureau and ex-Chair of the Committee on Legal Policy of the Verkhovna Rada.
