BOC and Prosecutor General’s Office meet leading business associations

A high-level meeting of the Business Ombudsman Council and the Prosecutor General’s Office with leading business associations took place today. In order to improve the professional level of prosecutors in the performance of tasks and compliance with the general principles of criminal proceedings, the Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktovа signed the Standards of Prosecutors in the field of investment protection during the pre-trial investigation.
The Business Ombudsman Roman Waschuk noted: “Signing of the standards for prosecutors is in line with two systemic recommendations of the Council, which we presented in the latest systemic report on abuses and pressure inflicted by law enforcers on business. The introduction of standards for prosecutors demonstrates the willingness of the Prosecutor General’s Office to respond to our recommendations. Standards are a good initiative, but they need to be used on a daily basis to generate more confidence for the business environment”.
“It is the constant communication of the Prosecutor General’s Office with business on the most pressing issues of investors’ rights violations, pressure, unjustified interference in business activities during the pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings that allows to accurately respond to any illegal actions by law enforcement. As a result, the idea of ​​protection in the work of the Prosecutor’s Office has become crucial for creating clear and transparent conditions of doing business in the country,” said Iryna Venediktova.
During the discussion moderated by the Deputy Business Ombudsman Iaroslav Gregirchak, the participants from thirteen business associations discussed the effectiveness of cooperation between business and the Posecutor’s Office in solving pressing issues of entrepreneurs and outlined areas of cooperation using the tookit of the Business Ombudsman Council.
It should be recalled that for 7 years of operations, the BOC received 1731 complaints about law enforcement agencies, of which 26% concerned illegal actions of the Prosecutor’s Office. Most often, businesses complained about procedural violations of prosecutors (224 complaints), their inaction (89) and unreasonably open criminal proceedings (80). It is noteworthy that the Council closed 65% of cases concerning the Prosecutor’s Office in favor of business – this is by 3 pp higher than the average percentage of the successfuly closed BOC cases.
The standards for prosecutors were developed by the Prosecutor General’s Office with the assistance and participation of the BOC, EBA, ACC, the Federation of Employers, the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs, Association of Taxpayers, Ukrainian Business Council, CEO Club Ukraine and EUAM.