ESB Director Selection Commission to return letter to govt on Monday, to not review candidacy
The Commission for the Selection of the Head of the Economic Security Bureau (ESB) will return the letter to the Cabinet of Ministers with documents and a cover letter on Monday, July 14, which will be signed by Head of the Commission Laura Stefan, and will not review the candidacy of previously selected Oleksandr Tsyvinsky.
"In my opinion, the commission has fulfilled its task: we have completed the work, we have taken all the measures required by law, we have approved the procedure for conducting the competition, we have announced the competition, we have collected documents, admitted candidates who met the criteria, we have conducted various tests and practical tasks," Stefan noted, adding that a special check was also conducted, the results of which were positive for all candidates.
She emphasized that the law on ESB does not provide for the possibility of making any other decisions after the selection of a candidate, therefore the commission cannot return to any previous stage of the competition.
According to her, when the final decision was made and the letter from the SBU regarding Tsyvinsky's father's Russian passport appeared, the commission knew about it, because such information had already appeared in the public domain since the beginning of 2023, when the candidate participated in the competition for the position of director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU).
"The winner of the competition has worked for over 20 years in various positions, and as far as the commission knows, he has access to state secrets. Let me repeat: all 16 finalists, including the winner of the competition, successfully passed a special check in May 2020, and the results of the special check were never reviewed or canceled," Stefan emphasized.
The decision to return the Cabinet letter and accompanying documents was supported by all six members of the commission at a meeting on Monday. They also decided not to declassify the letter from the SBU for Tsyvinsky and emphasized that the candidate should contact the agency himself to obtain information.
As reported, on July 7, the Cabinet considered the submission of the ESB director selection commission and asked it to resubmit no more than two candidates who would meet all the established requirements, including security criteria.