The BES selection commission responsible for selecting the head of the Bureau of Economic Security (BES) has rejected a letter from the Cabinet of Ministers explaining why it did not appoint Oleksandr Tsyvinsky. The commission refused to review or overturn its decision.
The decision was made during a July 14 meeting of the commission, broadcast live on YouTube.
Commission members concluded that the Cabinet’s request to reconsider the competition’s outcome was legally unfounded.
“We believe the commission’s work was completed when a candidate was selected,” said commission chair Lauri Stefan.
She added that the law does not allow the commission to revisit already completed stages of the selection process.
“When we made the final decision, we took into account the letter provided by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). The information from the SBU did not concern the candidates themselves, but their relatives,” Stefan explained.
Regarding Tsyvinsky specifically, Stefan said the fact that his father holds a Russian passport had already been publicly known since early 2023, when Tsyvinsky applied to head the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU). She added that Tsyvinsky has over 20 years of experience in government and has long held security clearance.
The commission will now return the documents to the Cabinet, expecting it to comply with the law and appoint the selected candidate.
“We’ll send the documents back with a short cover letter, which I will sign,” Stefan said.
The decision was unanimously supported by both Ukrainian and international members of the commission. According to the law, the Cabinet had 10 days to appoint the winner after receiving the competition results.
The commission consisted of six members — three nominated by the government and three representing Ukraine’s Western partners, who held decisive voting power. It was the international members who voted in favor of Tsyvinsky.
Background
The selection process began in December 2024 with 43 applicants. Most were eliminated during legal knowledge and skills testing. Sixteen candidates made it to the final round of interviews.
On June 23, the commission held its first round of voting, narrowing the field to two finalists: Ruslan Damentsov and Oleksandr Tsyvinsky.
On June 24, Tsyvinsky was declared the winner of the open competition.
In parallel, a resolution was registered in the Ukrainian Parliament demanding that the Cabinet immediately comply with the law and appoint the new BES chief. Lawmakers reminded the government that BES reform is a key commitment under Ukraine’s agreements with the IMF and the EU’s Ukraine Facility program.
Tags: BES Bureau of Economic Security Oleksandr Tsyvinskyi
