The NABU audit should be completed by the end of February

He said this in a comment to Ukrinform.

“Ukrainian legislation provides for an annual independent external audit of NABU’s performance, and the need for this is long overdue. Initially, the first audit was expected to be completed by the end of September 2024, but our appointment as members of the commission was postponed until September 3 for various reasons. We have informed the interested parties of Ukraine and the IMF that we will do our best to complete this audit by the end of February 2025.” , he said.

According to Westbrooks, postponing the evaluation until the end of February 2025 will allow for a more comprehensive assessment of NABU’s activities and provide substantive recommendations to improve its work.

According to the chairman of the commission, the audit is currently in the planning phase. Members of the commission recently completed their first visit to Kyiv, where they met with NABU leaders and learned about the main risks and challenges facing the office.

“The law on NABU, which provides for the establishment of the commission, states that the commission must independently develop and publish the evaluation criteria and methodology. In other words, we must define specific indicators to evaluate performance of the NABU and describe how we will collect evidence according to these indicators.We plan to approve and publish the evaluation criteria and methodology.After that, we will immediately begin to collect and analyze information and documents for the evaluation , and then we will prepare a report with reasoned findings and recommendations to improve NABU’s performance,” Westbrooks said.

As reported by Ukrinform, the first independent external audit of NABU began on October 3. The audit commission is made up of security, anti-corruption, asset recovery and audit experts appointed by the Council of Ministers at the proposal of international organizations that provide technical assistance. in the field of prevention and the fight against corruption.

At the end of September 2024, Ukraine committed to the IMF to conduct the first external audit of NABU by independent experts appointed by international partners.

In a comment to Ukrinform, NABU director Semen Kryvonos said that independent auditors will check all departments of the bureau, including the work of the secretive undercover detective unit.