On November 10, Director of ESBU Vadym Melnyk took part in a meeting of the Steering Committee of the EU Public Finance Management Support Programme for Ukraine (EU4PFM). During the meeting, Vadym Melnyk outlined the priorities and challenges in the creation of ESBU. He also shared details of how the Bureau worked. It was decided during the meeting to include Vadym Melnyk in the EU4PFM Steering Committee and to grant the Bureau the programme partner status.

“The role of the Bureau in ensuring the economic security of the state lies in preventing economic offenses rather than in reacting to consequences. The main purpose of this government agency is to improve the investment attractiveness of Ukraine, create equal and transparent conditions for doing business, neutralize power games and pressure on business, and increase the level of de-shadowing of the national economy. All this will help improve the business climate in Ukraine,” Vadym Melnyk said.

The Director of ESBU emphasized that the Bureau combines analytical and law enforcement functions:

“ESBU is an analytical agency. At the same time, it has to detect and stop criminal acts in all areas of the economy. This is the only authority that will have the functions of combating economic crime. In other words, the National Police, the State Bureau of Investigation and the Security Service lose such functions, while the tax police is eliminated entirely.”

For reference

EU4PFM programme will support tax and fee administration reforms that will enhance the institutional and organizational capacity of Ukrainian institutions in implementing and carrying out a modern tax compliance strategy. This strategy is aimed at the following: promoting the concept of voluntary tax payments; analysing and improving business processes in the tax and customs services; enhancing Ukraine's ability to levy taxes from the tax base, in particular by improving the exchange of tax information with other countries and by preventing tax evasion; continuing the harmonization of the tax and the customs legislation with the EU legislation as well as the best international practices; and improving the institutional and organizational capacities of tax and customs services.