NABU First Deputy Director Gizo Uglava has been suspended from his duties in connection with an alleged information leak.
The head was also deprived of management of internal departments. This was reported by the NABU press service.
"To ensure an objective pre-trial investigation into the alleged information leak, the NABU Director ordered the First Deputy Director to suspend the NABU from performing his duties and managing the areas and units set out in internal documents, following a statement of a possible conflict of interest," the statement said.
NABU assured of its interest in conducting a full and impartial investigation into the alleged data leak.
According to the UP, this refers to the disclosure of information on the "big construction" case in the interests of businessman Yuriy Holyk.
- On 22 May, the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, together with the National Police, searched the home of a NABU employee. The SAPO was investigating a possible leak of information about the investigation.
- At the same time, the prosecutor's office stated that they had involved the National Police in the search "due to insufficient resources of the NABU Internal Control Department".
- The NABU responded that it had sufficient resources.
Who is Gizo Uglava?
Gizo Uglava worked in the Georgian prosecutor's office from 1998 until 2012. In 2015, he became a Ukrainian citizen and in the same year became the first deputy director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, a new anti-corruption body for Ukraine. In April 2022, he began acting as NABU director, as there was no full-time director. Since March 2023, Semen Kryvonos has been the director.
In 2017, the Prosecutor General's Office opened a case against Uglava. They were checking whether he had Georgian citizenship at the time he took up a public office in Ukraine. At the time, the NABU called the proceedings a form of pressure on the bureau. The Bureau said that Uglava automatically lost his Georgian citizenship when he received Ukrainian citizenship.
The PGO was also investigating tax evasion. The Bureau called this accusation groundless and said that the prosecutor's office was investigating an episode of tax evasion "in advance".