Why do MPs establish investigatory commissions, and what is wrong with them

Tyshchenko claims that the conflict in Dnipro arose “when searching for fraudulent sock puppet farms.” However, the local police denied cooperation with the people's deputy. Tyshchenko was eventually charged with unlawful detainment and placed under house arrest. 

This is not the first time that a people's deputy has taken over the functions of law enforcement officers under the guise of the provisional investigatory commissions of the Verkhovna Rada. 

In July of last year, Tyshchenko, accompanied by policemen, came to search an office in Kyiv, allegedly as part of the operations of the “National Resource” provisional investigatory commission. In October of the same year, deputies Oleksandr Kunytskyy (Servant of the People) and Artem Dmytruk (Restoration of Ukraine) started a fight when auditing another “fraudulent call center.” 

What are the provisional investigatory commissions, why are the people's deputies establishing them, and what powers do they ensure? – read in the material of the CHESNO Movement. 

Apart from working in committees, people's deputies can join provisional investigatory and special commissions. Such commissions are established by a decision of the Verkhovna Rada to investigate high-profile cases and events and to work on improving legislative projects. Participation in the provisional investigatory commission allows people's deputies to enjoy collective efforts when solving certain issues. 

At least 150 deputies (that is, a third of the Rada's constitutional composition) should vote for the establishment of a new provisional investigatory commission. 

In total, 46 provisional investigatory and special commissions were established by the Verkhovna Rada during the 9th convocation. As of today, 17 of them are still in operation.

Over the years, people's deputies united in the provisional investigatory commissions on a wide variety of issues, from customs corruption to the Ukrzaliznytsia non-profitability, or from the investigation of explosions at ammunition depots and the legal issues related to alienation of Ukrainian property abroad after the collapse of the USSR. 

People's deputies began to establish provisional investigatory commissions much more actively after the 2022 invasion. Since then, there have been parliamentary provisional investigatory commissions on energy industry readiness before the war, interaction with the indigenous peoples of Russia, several provisional investigatory commissions on monitoring international aid, as well as a commission on violations involving the military draft. 

At the end of May 2024, after a Russian offensive in Kharkiv Oblast, the Rada established a provisional investigatory commission on budget expenditures for fortifications and drones. Before even starting its operations, this commission appeared at the center of a scandal as its members included two deputies from the now-banned pro-Russian party OPFL – Vitaliy Bort (currently in the Platform for Life and Peace group) and Anatoliy Burmich (currently in the Restoration of Ukraine camp). After public outcry, Bort was expelled from the provisional investigatory commission, though Burmich remained in the working group.

Each faction or group may delegate its representatives to a provisional investigatory commission. That said, a commission's chairman, deputy, and secretary cannot all be members of the same faction. 

Moreover, a people's deputy cannot be a member of more than two provisional investigatory commissions (one year ago, a people's deputy could be a member of only one commission). A deputy cannot become a member of a provisional investigatory commission if this may result in a conflict of interests. 

Since provisional investigatory commissions are established given the proportional representation of factions and groups, representatives of “Servant of the People” are most often included in such commissions of the Verkhovna Rada of the 9th convocation. 

The initiators of the establishment and the heads of the provisional investigatory commissions are often “servants,” though representatives of the Holos and Batkivshchyna parties have also actively established them. 

In total, 287 deputies of the 9th convocation participated in various temporary commissions. Larysa Bilozir (Dovira group) was the most active, being a member of seven different provisional investigatory commissions. 

 

The purpose of an investigative commission is to establish the circumstances of a certain high-profile event. Thus, deputies within the provisional investigatory commission have quite a wide range of authority: they can obtain access to various documents, involve law enforcement officers in the investigation, and request officials to give testimonies or explanations. 

However, in practice, some persons involved in the investigations have ignored the meetings of the provisional investigatory commission. In March 2024, Serhii Popko, the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, and Vitaliy Klychko, the mayor of Kyiv, did not attend the first meeting of the provisional investigatory commission on Kyiv despite being invited. Representatives of the provisional investigatory commission and the Ministry of Defense ignored the recent meeting of the commission on violations involving the military draft.

Members of the provisional investigatory commission meet regularly – at least twice monthly. A provisional investigatory commission must report to Parliament after six months of its operations. In general, the operations of the temporary commission may last up to a year, and finally, the provisional investigatory commission submits its report to the Verkhovna Rada to vote. 

During the entire term of the 9th convocation of the Verkhovna Rada, people's deputies upheld the reports of 11 temporary commissions, namely the report of the provisional investigatory commission on the attacks on Kateryna Handziuk and other activists, the report on explosions at ammunition depots, and the report on Ukrzaliznytsia. 

Once, the interim report of the investigatory commission on the “case of the Wagnerites” chaired by Mariana Bezuglai (Servant of the People) caused great hype, although it was not voted on in the Rada. 

The law stipulates that provisional investigatory commissions may not replace law enforcement agencies or courts. Still, the current convocation of the Rada is an unprecedented situation, when some people's deputies have begun abusing the powers of provisional investigatory commissions and even took over the functions of investigators. 

Recently, former “Servant” Mykola Tyshchenko was caught in the center of a scandal due to a video showing two people in camouflage accompanied by a people's deputy detain a former combatant of the Kraken military unit on the street. One of the incident's participants turned out to be an employee of the Kyiv police.

Tyshchenko explained that as a people's deputy he “arrived at the scene of the crime in Dnipro accompanied by law enforcement officers.”According to him, “When searching fraudulent sock puppet farms, police representatives were attacked."

Video of the fight https://t.me/chesno_movement/8210 

A few months ago, a similar incident happened in Kyiv involving Oleksandr Kunytskyy and Artem Dmytruk, deputies from “Servant of the People.” People's deputies started a fight in a Kyiv business center, where they had come to audit the operation of an allegedly fraudulent call center. Kunytskyi and Dmytruk were members of a provisional investigatory commission on combating call centers then. 

That said, Tyshchenko was never a member of this commission. Instead, starting from October 2022, he headed the so-called “National Resource” provisional investigatory commission. Officially, it was intended to investigate the alleged misconduct of the state forest and water resources agencies and the State Environmental Inspectorate. 

Tyshchenko even reported on the field meetings of the provisional investigatory commission, regional forestries inspected, and illegal deforestation investigated. Later, he ordered a special uniform for his provisional investigatory commission, similar to the one worn by security forces. 

Source: Facebook

However, at the beginning of May 2023, the Verkhovna Rada did not uphold the interim report of the forest commission, so it ceased its operations. At the same time, Tyshchenko became highly interested in call centers. In July, he announced the exposure of a sock puppet farm in one of the Kyiv offices in cooperation with the National Police and Oleksandr Sukhov (Servant of the People), a member of the provisional investigatory commission on call centers. Tyshchenko claimed that he received this information from citizens' appeals to the “National Resource” provisional investigatory commission.

Since then, Tyshchenko has regularly reported the exposure of call centers and sock puppet farms in various cities of Ukraine by the long-defunct “National Resource” provisional investigatory commission. 

“Greetings from the cesspit of fraudulent stock puppet farms – the city of Dnipro. An operational investigative group and the “National Resource” are working here,” the people's deputy captioned one of his videos posted in May 2024.

Moreover, under the guise of this provisional investigatory commission, Tyshchenko also reported audits of infrastructure facilities.

It should be noted that, upon presentation of the certificate of the people's deputy, as well as on behalf of the commission, the members of the provisional investigatory commission have the right to enter any institutions, regardless of their subordination, form of ownership, or secrecy regime. Tyshchenko did this without being an official member of any provisional investigatory commission.

Apart from that, the provisional investigatory commission on call centers also ceased its operations in December of the previous year. Still, the people's deputies continue to carry out some audits allegedly within the limits of this working group.

After the last fight in Dnipro, Tyshchenko was charged with unlawful deprivation of liberty followed by house arrest.

However, the question arises whether the leadership of the Verkhovna Rada and people's deputies, who vote for the establishment of such provisional investigatory commissions, will respond to these actions. So that temporary commissions do not turn from a tool of parliamentary control into a tool to abuse their powers by some people's deputies. 

Earlier, the CHESNO Movement wrote that this Verkhovna Rada convocation was the first officially “touchable” one, which greatly simplified the process of bringing people's deputies to justice. At least 54 deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of the 9th convocation were charged with criminal offenses. That is, every eighth deputy. 

There are other types of deputy unions in the Verkhovna Rada, such as inter-factional associations. One of the most famous inter-factional associations in the current convocation is Smart Politics by Dmytro Razumkov. The CHESNO Movement earlier wrote about the inter-factional associations' activities and why people's deputies established them.