Ukraine appoints Orest Mandzii as head of State Customs Service
Orest Mandzii (Photo: Interfax Ukraine)
Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers has appointed Orest Mandzii as head of the State Customs Service, the government said on Apr. 10.
According to the statement, the nomination was submitted by Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko following the results of the competition.
“We expect the new head to continue customs reform and to build a modern, transparent and efficient customs system that contributes to the country’s financial stability,” Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said.
She added that one of the key tasks is to implement consistent changes.
“We count on steady work to implement these changes and further strengthen the institutional capacity of the customs service,” Svyrydenko said.
Mandzii graduated from the Lviv Institute of Internal Affairs of the National Academy of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in 1997, after which he worked at a district police department of the Lviv city police, Interfax-Ukraine reported.
He also worked at the Frankivsk district police department in Lviv, the regional Interior Ministry office in Lviv Oblast and the main Interior Ministry office in Rivne Oblast, primarily as an operative officer combating economic crime and in particularly important cases involving international organized criminal groups.
In 2012, Mandzii moved to Volyn Oblast, where he worked in the regional Interior Ministry office as head of a sector combating economic crime at the Lutsk city department and as a senior operative officer in the same field.
From 2015, he moved into combating drug-related crime at the international level in the Lviv regional Interior Ministry office. The same year, he became a senior operative officer for especially important cases in the first territorial department in western Ukraine at the National Police’s anti-drug department.
Mandzii joined the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) in 2017, first as a senior detective and later as head of a unit within the main detective division. In 2025, he became head of the sixth detective unit of the fourth main detective division.
As reported, on March 27 the selection commission for the head of the State Customs Service, after interviews with 15 candidates, shortlisted NABU officials Ruslan Damentsov and Orest Mandzii.
The State Customs Service has not had a permanent head since November 2021.
In September 2024, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law to reboot the customs service, changing the rules for selecting its head and providing for a transparent competition with the participation of international organizations.
On Aug. 4, 2025, Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers launched an open competition for the position of head of the State Customs Service.
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