The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine will draft a bill authorizing lawmakers to dismiss the director of the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).
The relevant bill amending the law on NABU was approved at the government's special meeting on November 26, an UNIAN correspondent reported.
Justice Minister Denys Malyuska said that the bill is designed to ensure procedural guarantees for the normal operation of the institution after the entry into force of a Constitutional Court ruling on the unconstitutionality of certain provisions of the law on NABU.
"We do not radically change anything, but we ensure the status quo remains until the entry into force of laws amending the Constitution or other legislation, which will introduce a new procedure for appointing NABU's director in accordance with the Constitutional Court ruling. That is, this is a transitional law aimed at ensuring stable work of NABU," he said.
Opening the government meeting, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that the government's key goal is to preserve NABU's independence, simultaneously bringing all laws on its activities into line with the Constitution.
"Therefore, we will propose the Verkhovna Rada introduce changes that solve both of these issues. In particular, it is proposed to establish the powers of the Verkhovna Rada to decide on the dismissal of NABU's director if there are grounds clearly written out in the law. At the same time, an important provision of the proposed bill is the position that NABU's incumbent head continues to perform his duties until the appointment of a new director," Shmyhal explained.
Background
- On July 28, the Constitutional Court ruled unconstitutional the presidential decree of April 16, 2015, on the appointment of Artem Sytnyk as NABU Director.
- On September 16, the Constitutional Court ruled that a number of provisions of the law on NABU are unconstitutional, and that they will lose force in three months, that is, in mid-December.
- In particular, the provisions on empowering the President of Ukraine to form NABU, to appoint and dismiss its director, to appoint three persons to the commission for holding a competition for the position of the bureau's director, to appoint one member of the external control commission to conduct an independent assessment (audit) of NABU's effectiveness, its operational and institutional independence, and to approve the provisions on the Civil Oversight Council and the procedure for its formation were designated as unconstitutional.
