Robert Westbrooks, chairman of the Commission on External Audit of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, promises to complete the assessment of NABU’s activities by the end of February next year.
He said this in a comment to Ukrinform.
“An annual independent external audit of the NABU’s performance is provided for by the legislation of Ukraine, and the need for it has long been overdue. Initially, it was expected that the first audit would be completed by the end of September 2024, but our appointment as members of the commission was postponed until September 3 for a number of reasons. We have informed Ukraine’s stakeholders and the IMF that we will do our best to complete this audit by the end of February 2025,” he said.
According to Westbrooks, the postponement of the assessment to the end of February 2025 will allow for a more comprehensive assessment of the NABU’s activities and provide substantive recommendations for improving its work.
According to the commission’s chairman, the audit is currently at the planning stage. The commission members recently completed their first visit to Kyiv, where they met with the NABU leaders and learned about the main risks and challenges faced by the bureau.
“The law on the NABU, which provides for the establishment of the commission, stipulates that the commission must independently develop and publish evaluation criteria and methodology. In other words, we have to define specific indicators for assessing the NABU’s performance and describe how we will collect evidence in accordance with these indicators. In November, we plan to approve and publish the evaluation criteria and methodology. After that, we will immediately begin collecting and analyzing information and documents for the assessment, and then prepare a report with reasoned conclusions and recommendations to improve the NABU’s performance,” Westbrooks said.
As Ukrinform reported, the first external independent audit of the NABU began on October 3. The audit commission consists of experts in security, anti-corruption, asset recovery and audit appointed by the Cabinet of Ministers upon the proposal of international organizations that provide technical assistance in the field of preventing and combating corruption.
By the end of September 2024, Ukraine committed to the IMF to conduct the first external audit of the NABU by independent experts appointed by international partners.
In a commentary to Ukrinform, NABU Director Semen Kryvonos said that independent auditors will check all departments of the bureau, including the work of the secret unit of undercover detectives.
