The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has strengthened powers of the director of the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) and granted a permission to transfer investigators and prosecutors investigating into the Maidan cases to the SBI without mandatory competitions.

Some 250 Members of Parliament voted in favor of the president's bill No. 2116 on improving the work of the State Bureau of Investigations.

According to the document, the president will appoint the director of the SBI nominated by the contest commission without recommendation of the prime minister of Ukraine.

In addition, according to the bill, the central office of the SBI will organize the work of the contest commission instead of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

According to the bill, the SBI director will appoint and dismiss his or her first deputy and deputies, determine their duties, decide on application of disciplinary measures chosen by the disciplinary commission of the SBI, approve on the organizational structure of the SBI without approval by the Cabinet of Ministers.

The director of the SBI will have not more than three deputies.

The regulation on the public control council under the SBI and the procedure of forming it will be approved by the president of Ukraine, and not the Cabinet of Ministers, according to the document.