A parliamentary committee to oversee law enforcement agencies

New parliamentary committee to oversee law enforcement agencies 

Draft bill #8073-д of February 6, 2023 

Cosponsors: a group of MPs from Servant of the People, Trust, For the Future, and Platform for Life and Peace factions. 

Who is affected: MPs, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, prosecutors, employees of the Bureau of Economic Security and the State Bureau of Investigations, courts, ministries, central executive bodies, territorial units, and other government bodies. 

Summary of the bill: 

• a new parliamentary committee will be created. It will exercise controlling functions of the Verkhovna Rada over the organization and activities of law enforcement agencies and prosecution 
• the committee will have the following powers: 

1. to regularly get information about the crime rate throughout the state from law enforcement agencies and prosecution
2. to receive reports on how law enforcement agencies and prosecution perform their duties
3. to preview the reports by the Director of the State Bureau of Investigation, the Director of the Bureau of Economic Security, the Prosecutor General, and the Minister of Internal Affairs and issue conclusions on whether the work of these persons is satisfactory or not
4. to issue written recommendations to the heads of state bodies, law enforcement agencies, and prosecution. These recommendations are mandatory for consideration
5. to issue written requests to state bodies, law enforcement agencies, and prosecution with a demand to conduct inspections or official internal investigations
6. to initiate disciplinary action against the heads of state bodies, law enforcement agencies, and prosecution, their deputies, and heads of territorial units 

• the Minister of Internal Affairs and the Director of the Bureau of Economic Security will be obliged to report to the Parliament on the activities of their agencies 
• if the work of the Director of the Bureau of Economic Security is deemed unsatisfactory, it will be possible to dismiss the Director. 

What is right: the draft bill boosts the controlling functions of the Parliament. 

What is wrong: the new committee will have excessive powers. In particular, mandatory written recommendations, requests for inspections and official internal investigations, and requests for disciplinary actions will be tools easy to abuse and use to influence the work of law enforcement agencies and prosecution. 

Alternative solution: the draft bill should be revised so that the committee has only controlling, not repressive functions.