Court rules NABU director appointment as unconstitutional

Ukraine’s Constitutional Court ruled on Aug. 28 to
recognize as unconstitutional an order of President Poroshenko from April 2015
to appoint Artem Sytnyk for the position of director of the National
Anticorruption Bureau (NABU), ukranews.com.ua reported on the same day. The
court heard this case based on a petition from 51 MPs who claimed that the
appointment of the NABU head is not in the list of the president’s powers,
which is an exclusive list stipulated by the constitution.

Reacting to the event, NABU issued a press release on
Aug. 29 stating that the ruling does not mean the automatic dismissal of
Sytnyk, because the exclusive list of reasons for the firing of the NABU
director, stipulated by the law on NABU, does not include rulings by the
Constitutional Court.

However, the interpretation of the ruling by the
office of President Zelensky was different. In its Aug. 29 press release, the
office warned of a “possible loss of power by the NABU director” and expressed
its expectations of an efficient anti-corruption policy from NABU’s “acting
director.”

The office openly blamed Zelensky’s predecessor,
Poroshenko, for his “hasty and speculative practice” in the formation of
anticorruption infrastructure “which went against the constitution”. Instead,
NABU called the ruling as politically motivated, recalling that the ruling
emerged very soon after NABU released alleged audio recordings where some
judges were discussing their numerous conspiracies,
including the rulings of the Constitutional Court.

Alexander Paraschiy: We expect in
the coming days that there will more clarity on Sytnyk’s status, though
Zelensky’s press release leaves little chance that Sytnyk is still seen by the
president as NABU director. If so, Ukraine’s chance to get any external
financing in the West will be put under question, meaning Ukraine’s sovereign
default risk increases.

After last week’s dismissal of top anticorruption prosecutorNazar Kholodnytsky, Sytnyk was the only top Ukrainian official who has kept his
position since the presidency of Poroshenko. Appointed under the supervision of
IFIs, Sytnyk acted pronouncedly and independently from both Poroshenko and
Zelensky. Therefore, Sytnyk’s possible dismissal can bring into question the
independence of NABU, at least in the eyes of Ukraine’s western partners. The
very likely dismissal of Sytnyk will spoil Ukraine’s relationship with the IMF
which earlier reacted aggressively to any timid attempt to undermine Sytnyk’s
position as NABU head (e.g. by changing law on NABU).