On Wednesday, December 16, certain provisions of the law on the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), declared unconstitutional by the decision of the Constitutional Court dated September 16, will expire. At the same time, the status of Artem Sytnyk as director of NABU or the status of the Bureau itself does not change.
The Minister of Justice of Ukraine, Denys Malyuska, wrote about this on his Facebook page.
"Today, certain provisions of the NABU law, declared unconstitutional by the decision of the KSU dated September 16.09.2020, 3, are no longer valid. Let me remind you, then by its decision the KSU established a XNUMX-month postponement of the entry into force of the law... as a result of the KSU decision, there is now no procedure for appointing the director of NABU," shared Malyuska. At the same time, he added that the decision of the KSU, which entered into force, did not change the status of Sytnyk as the director of NABU or the status of NABU itself. "NABU continues to fully work and perform its functions... Artem Sytnyk remains a full-fledged director of NABU," he wrote.
The minister also singled out two main aspects of this issue.
The first part is to return to the president the powers to appoint and dismiss the director of NABU. "The only possible mechanism for such a return is amendments to the Constitution. The project of such changes is now being discussed by people's deputies," Malyuska said.
The second point of the plan is that during the transitional period (before the changes to the Constitution enter into force) separate procedures for the functioning of NABU (not related to the appointment of the director of NABU) will be regulated by a separate bill. "Such a draft law has already been prepared by the government and registered under No. 4437. We expect it to be considered by the parliament already this winter," added the minister. According to Malyusyka, according to this plan, Sytnyk will continue to work as the director of NABU and perform his functions either until the day of the election of a new director according to the new procedure (after changes to the Constitution and the law on NABU), or until the expiration of his appointment, which expires on April 16, 2 (in this case, his powers will pass to the corresponding deputy).
"The director of NABU can be released earlier than the term specified above, only in the event of the occurrence of grounds defined by Part 4 of Article 6 of the Law on NABU (dismissal at his own will, appointment to another position, acquisition of citizenship of another state, etc.). None of these foundations exist now," the Minister of Justice summed up.
