Countering corruption and economic crimes: from public assessment to practical decisions

 Society expects results from law enforcement agencies, not declarations. It was this demand for effectiveness that became one of the key topics in the expert discussion "Corruption and economic crimes: how to make the law enforcement system effective." Public assessment, institutional responsibility, and practical decisions". The round table was organized by the "Politarena" publication together with the "Active Group" research company.

The participants discussed a nationwide survey on the perception of corruption in Ukraine and assessments of the work of law enforcement and anti-corruption bodies, as well as practical approaches to increasing their effectiveness.

The discussion was attended by the First Deputy Director of the ESBU Taras Shcherbai, People's Deputy of Ukraine Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, Acting Head of ARMA Yaroslava Maksymenko, Deputy Director of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Law of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv Professor Nataliia Melnychuk, founder of "Active Group" Andrii Yeremenko, director of "Active Group" Oleksandr Pozniy, and editor-in-chief of "Politarena" Viktoriia Plotnikova.

Taras Shcherbai emphasized the importance of educational work and the formation of a new public attitude towards corruption, especially among young people.

At the same time, he dedicated a significant part of his speech to how the approach of the ESBU to countering economic offenses is changing, in particular, from reacting to already committed offenses to identifying economic risks and systemic work with entire sectors of the economy.

"We are moving from reacting to individual offenses to a systemic analysis of entire sectors of the economy. It is important not only to investigate crimes already committed but also to identify risks and illegal schemes even before they cause damage to the state," noted Taras Shcherbai.

For the first half of 2026, the cumulative economic effect of the activities of the ESBU amounted to 19.509 billion UAH. Of these, 1.79 billion UAH represents funds returned to the state, 3.903 billion UAH represents prevented losses to the budget and business, and 13.816 billion UAH is the result of the detente of markets.

One of the key areas of the work of the ESBU is the detaxation of the fuel market. The share of the shadow sector decreased from 34% to 9%, and the volumes of legal fuel sales through PRO (registries of settlement operations) for the first half of the year increased by 342 million litres. The effect of the detaxation of this market is estimated at 12.4 billion UAH.

The ESBU also systematically counters the illegal circulation of tobacco products and artificial business fragmentation. In the first half of the year, the activities of 21 illegal tobacco and vape production sites were stopped, and 11 industrial production lines were seized. Within the framework of countering fragmentation schemes, over 254 million UAH was reimbursed to the budget.

Separately, Taras Shcherbai dwelt on the further transformation of the ESBU. Among the key tasks are strengthening institutional independence, proper funding, a competitive level of remuneration, and the staffing of the Bureau.

Currently, the actual number of ESBU staff is 1,051 employees – about 26% of the maximum number provided for by law. At the same time, the attestation of employees and open competitive selections for vacant positions are ongoing.

"Our task is to change the economic environment so that conducting business legally is more profitable and safer than working in the shadow. It is the real impact on the economy that should be the main indicator of the effectiveness of the ESBU," Taras Shcherbai concluded.