On December 21, the Verkhovna Rada met for the last time this year. Contrary to the request of the G7 ambassadors, she elected four new members of the Court of Auditors. Among them is Zelensky’s family friend Olga Pishchanskaya, whom the OP plans to make head of the Accounts Chamber
What the Accounts Chamber didn’t like
What kind of institution this is, the Accounts Chamber, can be judged by its affairs. The loudest, perhaps, was the audit of the effectiveness of the use of state budget funds by the Ministry of Defense to purchase clothing and provide food for military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
We all remember the scandal surrounding the Ministry of Defense’s purchase of eggs for 17 UAH apiece. And as the (now former) minister, Reznikov refuted: they say, eggs at 17 UAH per piece are a “technical error”, there should have been 170 UAH per kilogram, but they wrote 17 UAH per piece.
The Rada dismissed Reznikov on September 5. The “Servants of the People” saw him off standing and with thunderous applause. And on October 24, the Accounts Chamber approved a report on the audit results, which clearly states: “Prices for chicken eggs of category C 1 in February 2023 were from 7.28 to 7.4 UAH/piece. According to the concluded agreement, the price of a first-grade chicken egg is per 1 piece. was 17.0 UAH, that is, it was 2.8 times more.”
Of course, the eggs are just a small episode, it just became a symbol of corruption in the Ministry of Defense. But in general, says the report of the Accounts Chamber, in the first half of 2023, “The Ministry has not ensured sound planning and productive use of budget funds. As a result, 5 billion 358.2 million UAH of budget funds were used unproductively, uneconomically - 6.6 million UAH, in violation of the law - 639 million UAH, in violation of the procedures of the law on defense procurement - 9 billion 440.6 million UAH. The most commonly consumed food products were purchased at prices that were on average 30 percent higher. exceeded the market." In addition, “as a result of non-compliance by suppliers with the terms of contracts, 2 million 328 thousand 670 units were not received. clothing worth UAH 2 billion 80.9 million, which creates risks of inadequate clothing provision for military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” And then there are many pages of details about all these and other violations.
This report alone is enough to make sure that the Accounts Chamber is not controlled by the office of Vladimir Zelensky. Was.
What Biden and the G7 demanded
On September 25, Bankovaya received a letter from the White House with a “List of Priority Reforms,” which states, in particular, the need to “strengthen the Accounts Chamber.” To do this, amend the legislation in order to strengthen the independence and professionalism of this institution, ensure an independent, transparent, competitive and timely selection of members of the Accounts Chamber with verification of their independence, competence and integrity, as well as strengthen the powers of the Accounts Chamber on auditing local government bodies, state enterprises and activities in the field of public procurement.
According to the law, the Accounts Chamber consists of 13 members, including the chairman and his deputy. All members of the joint venture are elected by parliament, then parliament appoints the chairman of the joint venture from among the members of the joint venture. The term of office of a member of the joint venture is six years. Decisions of the joint venture are made by a majority vote of those present at the meeting.
When Bankovaya received the list of reforms from the White House, the joint venture had eight members, seven of them were elected in March 2018, one was already under Zelensky, in December 2022 (this is Gennady Plis, who had previously headed the State Audit Service for two and a half years). This left five vacancies. Including the vacant position of chairman of the joint venture - the previous head Valery Patskan was dismissed early by parliament in April 2023.
Back on September 14, 28 “servants of the people” submitted to parliament a draft of a new law “On the Accounts Chamber.” It would be possible to quickly adopt this law, taking into account the wishes of Ukraine’s Western partners in the second reading, and only then hold a competition for five vacancies. But Bankovaya decided: first there will be a competition in the budget committee according to the old rules, and the law will come sometime later.
Non-public methods of influencing Bankova did not help, and on December 7, the G7 ambassadors made a public statement: “Reforming the Accounts Chamber is a chance to show the world that Ukraine manages international assistance and the resources of its own citizens well. The appointment of new management should only occur after legislation has been passed to ensure transparent and merit-based competition with proper vetting of candidates.”
This also did not help, and on December 19, G7 ambassadors issued a warning about the consequences: “G7 ambassadors are concerned by reports that this week the Rada is rushing with four new appointments before the completion of the reform of the Court of Accounts. Prior to the passage of the reform law, these appointments would undermine the credibility of the institution responsible for overseeing international aid.”
What did the Rada manage to do?
On December 21, Stefanchuk, referring to the decision of the conciliation council (where the “servants of the people” have the casting vote), submitted for consideration the issue of electing new members of the Accounts Chamber.
First, a ranked vote was held for all 27 candidates in alphabetical order - a purely formal procedure, since the four winners were known in advance (based on the results of the competition in the budget committee). They were Kirill Klimenko (238 votes), Sergei Klyuchka (231), Olga Pishchanskaya (235), Elizaveta Pushko-Tsibulyak (235). The remaining candidates received from 16 to 79 votes.
Then the Rada, with 247 votes, adopted a resolution appointing these four members of the Accounts Chamber. 174 votes were given by “Servants of the People”, 16 by “Batkivshchyna”, 15 by “Dovira”, 14 by “Renewal of Ukraine”, 13 by “Platform for Life and Peace”, 6 by “For the Future”, 3 by “Voice”, 6 - non-factional (including Stefanchuk and his first deputy Alexander Kornienko). The “no” button was pressed by 22 people’s deputies, including 18 from European Solidarity.
What the Rada didn’t manage to do
After this, Stefanchuk announced: “I am submitting a proposal for the appointment of Olga Stanislavovna Pishchanskaya, a member of the Accounts Chamber, to the post of Chairman of the Accounts Chamber.” And then there should have been a vote for the corresponding resolution.
But instead, Stefanchuk suddenly put to a vote “a procedural decision to hold a meeting of the budget committee today to urgently consider the issue of appointing the chairman of the Accounts Chamber” (although this is not provided for in any law). This idea was supported by 237 people's deputies. This happened at 13:24, and already at 14:07 Stefanchuk announced that the committee had held a meeting. The head of the committee, Roksolana Pidlasa, said that the committee recommends that Pishchanskaya be appointed chairman of the joint venture.
Then Stefanchuk slowed down again. Instead of putting the relevant resolution to a vote, he announced a signal vote, that is, a kind of rehearsal to see if 226 votes would be reached. There were 232 votes. It would seem that one can calmly put the Rada resolution to a vote.
But Stefanchuk suddenly announced, without explaining the reasons: “Dear colleagues, unfortunately, we did not have time to consider all the issues on the agenda. I thank everyone for the fruitful work. I now announce a break in our plenary session.”
What to expect next
People's Deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak (Golos party faction) explained Stefanchuk's deviant behavior simply: “They were afraid that they didn’t have the votes. Postponed until next year. This week's and this year's meeting is over. That is, they started the review, but then they saw a problem with the votes, checked on the signal vote (it gives nothing), saw 232, and it was obvious that it was about to fail. Therefore, they postponed until approximately January 8-10. There will be a vote on the appointment immediately at the first meeting.”
However, in half a month they may change their minds on Bankovaya. It is possible that Stefanchuk slowed down the vote for Pishchanskaya because Bankova was afraid of angering Ukraine’s Western partners too much.
It is also possible that Bankova is afraid of an overly negative reaction from Ukrainian society. The mere fact of appointing four members of the Accounts Chamber is unlikely to cause much resonance. However, if Olga Pishchanskaya is appointed head of the Accounts Chamber, this could become a serious irritant for both the West and Ukrainian society.
After all, the Accounts Chamber is a body of the Verkhovna Rada for monitoring how the executive branch spends budget funds. And the unwritten rules of political decency require that the head of the Accounts Chamber at least appear independent from the Office of the President. And Pishchanskaya is a friend of Zelensky’s family; they were neighbors at the entrance.
Under Zelensky, Pishchanskaya made a dizzying career. In September 2019, she changed the modest position of commercial director of STEM Engineering LLC (authorized capital UAH 50 thousand) to the portfolio of the first deputy head of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU). In July 2020, the Verkhovna Rada appointed Pishchanskaya as head of the AMCU. On September 5, 2023, the Rada granted her desire to leave this position - it was expected that she would take the position of head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPFU), which became vacant after Rustem Umerov moved to work as Minister of Defense.
But then Zelensky changed his personnel plans, and on November 21, the Rada, on the proposal of the president, appointed Vitaly Koval, who previously headed the Rivne Regional State Administration, as the new head of the State Property Fund. It seems that it has become more important for Bankova to use Pishchanskaya at the head of the Accounts Chamber in order to prevent devastating audits that damage the government’s ratings.
On the other hand, this story has already begun to play against Zelensky. Because everything is too obvious, and opponents are already using it.
For example, Alexey Goncharenko, just before the signal vote on Pishchanskaya in the Rada, made the most mocking speech: “Well, friends, the end of the era of nepotism has come. Congratulations to all of you. Look, if it so happens in life that you are neighbors of the Zelensky family, then everything will be fine in your life. They ask me why Pishchanskaya? Why her? I’ll tell you, probably, maybe you would become president, you would appoint your neighbors, but Vladimir Alexandrovich became, he appoints his own. By the way, Olga Pishchanskaya is with us today, maybe she will explain in her speech. This is very interesting, look, her sister Svetlana Pishchanskaya is the director of the company for which the Zelensky family villa in Italy is registered. I understand everything, but you were already the head of the Antimonopoly Committee, now the chairman of the Accounts Chamber, well, an irreplaceable person. Maybe you should still look among other neighbors; you can’t narrow it down to just one neighbor, one family. Somehow, it seems to me, it’s even incomprehensible, other neighbors might be offended, after all, they also lived somewhere nearby, and you somehow bypass them all the time.”
Another people's deputy from European Solidarity, Vladimir Ariev, went even further - he provides evidence that “Pishchanskaya’s sister is connected with Russian intelligence.” In particular, Arev claims, Svetlana Pishchanskaya “has a company in Strasbourg, registered on the premises of the Russian cultural center.”
Therefore, it is possible that purely image considerations will push Zelensky to leave Olga Pishchanskaya as an ordinary member of the Accounts Chamber, and give the post of chairman to someone who may look independent from Bankova (but in fact will obey Pishchanskaya’s instructions). In any case, the Accounts Chamber is a collegial body, and after the appointment of four members approved by the budget committee of the Rada, Bankova’s influence on this institution may become critical. It will likely be enough to block inconvenient audit findings.
That is, a concession to public opinion could be a refusal to appoint Pishchanskaya as head of the joint venture (but now, of course, there is no guarantee that such a concession will be made). As for Joe Biden and the G7, Zelensky is probably hoping to fulfill some other item on the list of demands so that Ukraine’s Western partners come to terms with this story.
