Rada approves expert group to pick Accounting Chamber members, an EU aid condition
Ukraine's parliament has approved a six-member advisory group of experts to select Accounting Chamber members, according to the Centre for Economic Strategy. The step is one of the conditions for €3.7bn in EU macro-financial aid.
Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, on 14 October approved the composition of an advisory group of experts that will select members of the Accounting Chamber, according to the Telegram channel of the Centre for Economic Strategy (CES), a Ukrainian think tank.
The Accounting Chamber is Ukraine's main external state financial control body. It audits how the state spends taxpayers' money and whether society gets results from that spending. CES says the Chamber has worked for almost three years with fewer than half of its posts filled, with more than half of them vacant.
Setting up the expert group is also one of the conditions for Ukraine to receive €3.7 billion in macro-financial assistance from the European Union, CES said. The think tank's post is the only source for this report. The Rada's decision and the link to the EU funds have not been independently confirmed.
Who is in the group
The group has six members: three Ukrainian experts nominated under the parliament's quota and three international experts nominated by Ukraine's international partners.
Parliament's quota:
- Hlib Vyshlinskyi, executive director of the Centre for Economic Strategy;
- Mykola Marchenko, first deputy head of the secretariat of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction;
- Myroslava Masliak, senior lecturer at Kharkiv National University of Economics and assistant-consultant to a member of parliament.
International partners' quota:
- Igors Ludborzs (Latvia), a former member and dean of the European Court of Auditors;
- Pascal Munier (France), an honorary magistrate of the French Court of Auditors;
- Lee Summerfield (United Kingdom), a director at the UK National Audit Office.
CES is not a neutral observer here: its own director, Vyshlinskyi, is among the appointed experts. The channel's post was headlined with his selection.
What happens next
According to CES, the selection process has several stages:
- Applications from candidates for Accounting Chamber member open on 14 October and run for 30 days.
- The expert group tests and interviews the candidates.
- The group recommends to parliament at least two candidates for each vacant post.
- Parliament appoints six new Accounting Chamber members from among the recommended candidates.
Within a week of the group's formation, the Rada's official website must publish an announcement setting out the terms of the competition, CES said.
The final decision on who joins the Chamber stays with parliament. The expert group only screens and recommends candidates.
