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The Constitutional Court of Ukraine recognized unconstitutional the decree on the appointment of Artem Sytnyk as director of NABU.
The Constitutional Court made a resounding decision. President Petro Poroshenko’s decree on the appointment of Artem Sytnik as director of NABU was declared unconstitutional.
Poroshenko appointed Sytik as director of NABU in April 2015. 51 popular deputies addressed the Constitutional Court with a request to consider the constitutionality of the decree. Among them are representatives of the Servant of the People and the HLP factions: Alexander Dubinsky, Maxim Buzhansky, Viktor Medvedchuk, Ilya Kiva, Daniil Getmantsev and others.
Correspondent.net understood the consequences of the court decision.
COP motivation
The court decided that Poroshenko could not appoint the director of NABU, because those powers of the president are not spelled out in the Constitution. That is, Poroshenko exceeded his authority.
The judges considered the issue in 3 months, a record time.
“The decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine does not apply to legal relationships arising from the performance of official duties by one person,” the decision says.
In other words, all NABU decisions and cases remain in effect.
What will happen to Sytnik?
One of the authors of the appeal to the Constitutional Court, the deputy of the Servant of the People, Maxim Buzhansky, believes that after the court’s decision, Sytnik can no longer fulfill the powers of the director of NABU.
According to him, if Sytnik refuses to leave his position as director of NABU, the law enforcement officers should initiate criminal proceedings.
Buzhansky believes that “Sytnik should write a letter of resignation” and this is the only legal way out at this time. In addition, the deputy is sure that this situation will have to be regulated by the parliament.
The chairman of the Servant of the People faction in parliament, David Arahamia, also believes that the Rada should amend the law on NABU to bring it into line with the decision of the Constitutional Court.
Furthermore, according to Arakhamia, amendments to the law should be made urgently, as “otherwise any other designated leader will also be considered illegally appointed.”
The head of the faction did not specify whether the president’s powers to appoint / remove the bureau director will be expanded or whether these powers will be transferred to the government. But he is also convinced that Sytnik will be forced to resign.
Does not go anywhere
But Sytnik himself is not going anywhere and considers the Constitutional Court’s decision to be politically motivated. Furthermore, the NABU hinted at the connection between the Constitutional Court’s decision and the case against judges of the Kiev District Administrative Court, whom the Office suspects of attempting to seize power.
“Adopted in record time, shortly after the release of the so-called OASK tapes, which documented conversations about the justice administered in Ukraine, including regarding the decisions made by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, this decision is another step towards destruction of the institutional independence of the national office “. , – said in a statement to NABU.
Sytnik continues to fulfill the powers of the NABU director.
“Sytnik is a director. We believe that the (KSU) decision is not retroactive. To fire Artyom Sergeevich, a presidential decree is needed. But if you don’t have the right to appoint, then you don’t have the right to dismiss, ”said Sytnik deputy Gizo Uglava.
Collision
In fact, the decision of the Constitutional Court creates a legal conflict.
“If the decree is recognized as unconstitutional, then the next presidential decree on the appointment of someone to the post of director of NABU will also be unconstitutional in the future,” said Fyodor Venislavsky, the presidential representative on the Constitutional Court.
To appoint the head of NABU, according to him, legislative changes are needed.
“It is not entirely clear what to do with this. There are more questions than answers, ”Venislavsky says.
Vitaly Shabunin, president of the Public Organization of the Center for the Fight against Corruption, believes that the current situation with the decision of the Constitutional Court should be “resolved” by the Rada by defining a new procedure, until then Sytnik must comply with the functions of the head of the Bureau.
“The KSU decision does not mean the automatic dismissal of Artem Sytnik … The Rada must find a way out of the deadlock by defining a new appointment procedure. For this, Sytnik must fulfill the duties of the NABU director,” believes Shabunin.
At the same time, the activist added that Shabunin added that an exclusive list of reasons for removing the NABU director is now contained in the relevant law. There is no position on the decision of the Constitutional Court as a basis for the dismissal. In other words, firing Sytnik in any case will not be easy.
Will there be a new competition?
The Presidency described the decision of the Constitutional Court to recognize the personnel policy “badly considered and speculative” of the predecessors.
The Presidency emphasized that the Constitutional Court evaluates the management decision of that time in terms of personnel appointments, and not an assessment of the quality of the body’s own work.
Bankova Street expects Sytnik to “effectively implement the anti-corruption policy in the period before the election of a new leader in honest and transparent competition.”
