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The deputy director of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Oleg Tatarov, believes that the director of the National Anti-Corruption Office, Artem Sytnyk, should resign.
The main problem of the National Anti-Corruption Office of Ukraine (NABU) is its director Artem Sytnyk. Oleg Tatarov, deputy head of the Office of the President (OP) of Ukraine, told Zakon i Biznes newspaper on November 28.
“NABU is not a story of Ukraine, which, unfortunately, is outside our country. Various legislative initiatives can be proposed, but the root of the problems in the state’s anti-corruption policy is precisely Artem Sytnik,” he said.
The deputy director of the OP believes that Sytnyk has no moral right to head the anti-corruption office due to the fact that he is recognized as a corrupt official, as well as the illegal appointment to the post, which was decided by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
“Various criminal proceedings surrounding Sytnik are also being investigated. According to the court’s decision, investigators examined Sytnik’s emails and found that he influenced the decision-making of economic courts in the interests of his family and friends,” he explained Tatarov.
The National Anti-Corruption Office of Ukraine was established in 2015. Since its inception, it has been headed by lawyer Artem Sytnik. Under the law, the NABU’s task is to counter corruption offenses committed by high-ranking officials.
On September 6, 2019, the Sarny District Court of the Rivne Region found Sytnik guilty of violating the restrictions on receiving gifts determined by Ukrainian law due to unspecified information in the statement of the head of NABU about his vacation on the Polesskoe-Sarny hunting grounds in the period from 2017 to 2019. …
Sytnyk challenged the lower court’s decision at the Rivne Court of Appeal, but the NABU director’s complaint was rejected. After that, Sytnyk was entered in the registry of persons who committed a crime of corruption. In 2020, he appealed the decision of the Ukrainian court to the European Court of Human Rights.
Sytnyk accused Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov of organizing this case. In his opinion, this is revenge for the so-called backpack case, in which Avakov’s son Alexander appeared.
In May 2020, the KSU received a presentation from 51 popular deputies. He said Ukraine’s fifth president Petro Poroshenko, who appointed the head of NABU, went beyond his powers.
On August 28, the KSU announced a decision on this submission… The court concluded that the decree naming Sytnik was unconstitutional, since in The main law clearly defines the list of positions that the president appoints (there is no director of the NABU among them). By issuing a decree on Sytnik’s appointment, Poroshenko exceeded his constitutional powers, according to the KSU.
At the same time, the KSU stressed that the decision does not apply to legal relationships derived from the implementation of Sytnik job responsibilities. Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Constitutional Court, People’s Deputy of the “Servant of the People” Fyodor Venislavsky explained that The decision of the Constitutional Court does not threaten the cases investigated by the anti-corruption office: all actions committed by the director of the NABU before August 28 will be considered legitimate and constitutional.
NABU described the Constitutional Court’s decision as one more step towards destroying the institutional independence of the department.
September 16 KSU declared unconstitutional certain provisions the law on NABU, in particular provisions on the empowerment of the President of Ukraine to create NABU, appoint and remove its director, appoint a member of the external control committee to carry out an independent evaluation (audit) of the effectiveness of the office, its operational and institutional independence and approve the regulations on the Public Control Council and the procedure for its formation.
The NABU said that due to the KSU’s decisions, the audit and appointment of the head of the bureau would be prohibited.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in an online meeting with the G7 ambassadors on November 19, said that the director of NABU Sytnyk will remain in office after December 16, and the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to recognize as unconstitutional some Provisions of the law on NABU do not yet pose threats that may affect the legitimacy of the office. and its chapters.
On November 27, the Verkhovna Rada registered bill No. 4437, which provides for amendments to the law on NABU, according to which the parliament may remove the director of the National Office if there are reasons provided for in the law.
The head of the Servants of the People faction in Verkhovna Rada, David Arakhamia, said that all parliamentary factions support the adoption of the bill on the procedure to remove the head of NABU.
