It became known when the new head of the Bureau of Economic Security will be appointed
23 October 2024 06:35
By the end of February 2025, Ukraine should appoint a new head of the Bureau of Economic Security (BES) with the participation of international experts. This is stipulated in the updated Memorandum with the IMF, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports, citing the Judicial and Legal Newspaper.
As stated in the document, after the adoption of new legislation in June 2024, the BES will focus its activities on key economic and financial crimes, and its analytical capabilities will be strengthened.
The Ukrainian authorities are committed to selecting a new head of the BES in accordance with the law, with the process to be completed by the end of February 2025.
The new head will approve the certification procedure and establish a certification commission within three months of his appointment. This is necessary to strengthen control over compliance with the law and to detect serious financial offences, including tax evasion. The new law on the BES also establishes transparency, accountability and integrity mechanisms that should strengthen the Bureau’s work.
The selection committee for the new head of the BES will include independent experts with international experience, who will also play an important role in the certification of existing employees and the selection of new staff.
In addition, the Ukrainian authorities should use anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing mechanisms to detect tax evasion and smuggling, in cooperation with the relevant authorities. Work continues on reforming the State Customs and Tax Services. At the same time, the authorities have committed to appointing a new head of the customs service through transparent procedures involving international experts.
The IMF emphasises that in order to detect tax crimes and smuggling, analytical capabilities and information exchange between the relevant authorities need to be strengthened.
“Measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing and cooperation with the State Financial Monitoring Service should also be used to further facilitate the detection of tax crimes and smuggling. This requires strengthening the analytical capabilities of the authorities and information sharing,” the IMF said.
