IN THE FIRST HALF OF 2024, THE NATIONAL BUREAU CONTINUED EFFECTIVE COOPERATION WITH INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS AND THE PUBLIC

Their primary demand is ensuring justice, and we remain committed to this goal. Improving the Bureau's operations and investigations is the way to achieve it.

International cooperation remains a crucial focus of the National Bureau's activities. Interaction with partners is vital for institutional development and for maintaining independence and credibility. NABU’s key priorities include establishing a forensic institution within the Bureau and ensuring independent wiretapping capabilities. Other important tasks include implementing recommendations of independent technical assessments, recruiting new staff, adopting the innovative eCase system, promoting Ukraine's accession to the OECD Working Group on Bribery, establishing a training center, and most importantly, increasing the number of investigations and exposures of high-level corruption. These priority issues were discussed at a meeting with over 40 representatives of embassies and international organizations in early 2024. Meetings were also held with the representatives of the G7. Moreover, it is important to highlight the development of relations with the National Bureau of Investigation of Finland, the Central Anti-Сorruption Bureau of the Republic of Poland, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

An important aspect of NABU's work is strengthening operational collaboration and creating joint mechanisms to control partners' financial aid to Ukraine. This was discussed by NABU executives, Robert Storch, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Defense, Diana Shaw from the Department of State, and Paul Martin from the U.S. Agency for International Development. Enhanced control over partners' aid is already in progress, as the number of detectives and analysts involved in defense and recovery investigations grows.

To this end, the training session CryptoEdge: Cryptocurrency technologies and methods of investigating virtual assets crimes was held. Last year, 250 National Bureau employees completed the course. This year, 15 detectives have been selected for advanced and intensive training on modern analytical search methods, principles of using OSINT tools for crypto investigations, and algorithms for analyzing and tracking virtual asset movements.

At the end of 2023, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law to increase the staff of the National Bureau, which is one of the European Commission's recommendations for starting negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU. In 2024, a large recruitment of new employees began. Over the next three years, the staff of NABU will increase by 300 people, and the total maximum number of employees will reach 1,000. This expansion is crucial for boosting the bureau's capacity, alleviating the workload on detectives, and enhancing overall effectiveness. The recruitment process will be phased, with competitions for new positions announced regularly. An important part of this process, the open competition, aims to attract motivated and reputable candidates. Significant changes have been made to the application procedure for these competitions. There is no longer a need to spend hours filling out and sending paper applications, as the National Bureau now offers online submission on its website. The new single-window application system for NABU's open competitions streamlines the response time for vacancies and digitizes the entire process. An enhanced integrity check of candidates for positions in NABU and online interviews of candidates for leadership positions have also been introduced.

The National Bureau continues engaging with student communities. This is crucial given the expansion of the bureau’s staff and the need to cultivate a younger generation with zero tolerance for corruption.