Government bill on new procedure for appointing NABU chief submitted to parliament

Government bill on new procedure for appointing NABU chief submitted to parliament / Photo from UNIAN

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has registered a government bill on a new procedure for appointing the director of the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).

The bill on amending some laws of Ukraine on bringing the status of the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine in line with the requirements of the Constitution of Ukraine (No. 5070) was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada on February 15, according to the parliament's official website.

The text of the bill has not yet been published.

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• On July 28, 2020, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (CCU) declared a presidential decree dated April 16, 2015, on the appointment of Artem Sytnyk as NABU Director as unconstitutional. The decision was taken on a motion filed by 51 lawmakers.
• On September 16, the Constitutional Court ruled that certain provisions of the law on the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine are at variance with the country's Constitution. 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.
• On December 16, the CCU decision entered into force, invalidating the mentioned provisions of the law on NABU. At the time, Justice Minister Denys Malyuska claimed this did not change the status of either NABU Director Artem Sytnyk or the Bureau.
• On February 15, 2021, the Cabinet of Ministers, Ukraine's government, approved for submitting to parliament a bill that grants the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine the status of executive authority, at the same time providing for the first deputy director to lead the agency during the transition period.