The Verkhovna Rada's committee on issues to combat corruption was not able to conduct a meeting on Friday, which was planned to review the credentials of candidates for an independent commission on auditing the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine.

Only eight of the 24 members of the committee attended the meeting on March 17, a correspondent from the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency has reported.

"There are not enough members for a quorum. This is already the ninth sitting of the committee over the last three months ignored by the group of parliament deputies from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc (PPB) parliamentary faction," said BPP deputy Serhiy Leshchenko.

The next committee meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, March 29.

As earlier reported, on February 23, 2017, Ukraine's parliament was unable to delegate its choice of a candidate for conducting an independent audit of the efficacy of NABU. MPs reviewed resolution No. 5571, which recommended appointing Deputy Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice Robert Storch to the position. However, PPB faction head Ihor Hryniv instead proposed British citizen Nigel Brown. As a result of haggling, neither candidate was chosen.

On March 15 and on March 16 the anti-corruption committee was again unable to decide whom to appoint.

Parliament during a plenary session on March 16 was unable to floor a motion to resolve the issue. The measure was supported by only 205 MPs, 21 short of the 226 simple majority required.