The National Agency for Preventing Corruption (NAPC) said on Oct. 28 that it had closed the register of officials’ asset declarations due to a Constitutional Court ruling that effectively destroyed the declaration system.
It comes amid an already tough week for anti-corruption reforms in Ukraine.
On Oct. 27, the Constitutional Court eliminated Ukraine’s asset declaration system for officials by depriving the NAPC of most of its powers. The court ruled that these powers were unconstitutional and also canceled penalties for officials who lie in their asset declarations. The NAPC is tasked with monitoring asset declarations and initiating penalties for violations in them.
Specifically, the court ruled that public access to officials’ declarations and the NAPC’s authority to monitor and check officials’ declarations and lifestyle were among clauses of the corruption prevention law that violated the Constitution.
According to Vitaliy Shabuinin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center’s executive board, the Constitutional Court ruling blatantly violates Ukraine’s commitments before the European Union, the U.S. and the International Monetary Fund. That means the court’s assault on anti-corruption institutions may disrupt lending by the International Monetary Fund and lead the European Union to suspend its visa-free travel agreement with Ukraine.
“The Constitutional Court has completely destroyed the electronic declaration system and a major part of the anti-corruption reforms carried out due to the Revolution of Dignity,” Shabunin wrote on Facebook, referring to the EuroMaidan Revolution, which ousted corrupt former President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.
“In its current state, the Constitutional Court is a threat to national security and the Constitution,” Shabunin continued. “(President Volodymyr) Zelensky must immediately summon the National Security and Defense Council and react to this threat. Otherwise he is an accomplice in that crime.”
The court did not respond to a request for comment.
“The Constitutional Court is returning Ukraine not even to 2013 but to 1991, when there was no anti-corruption legislation at all,” Oleksandr Novikov, head of the NAPC, said at a news briefing. “The court has canceled all anti-corruption tools developed since Ukraine became independent.”
In a statement, Zelensky’s office said that “there are still corrupt politicians who cannot tolerate the fact that their lifestyle, property and income can be under control” but “relevant tools in Ukrainian legislation will be kept or at least reinstated.”
However, even if the anti-corruption laws canceled by the Constitutional Court are reinstated, officials who committed crimes before their reinstatement will escape punishment.
Conflict of interest
The NAPC said that Constitutional Court judges Iryna Zavhorodnya and Serhiy Holovaty had a conflict of interest, but still voted for the decision. That is forbidden by law.
The agency said it had identified incorrect information about assets worth Hr 3.6 million ($126,000) in Holovaty’s declaration and about assets worth Hr 1.4 million ($49,000) in Zavhorodnya’s declarations. The NABU has opened a criminal case against Zavhorodnya.
The NAPC also said that Constitutional Court judges Ihor Slidenko and Volodymyr Moisyk had failed to declare changes in their assets on time, which is a misdemeanor.
Other blows to anti-graft institutions
The Constitutional Court has recently dealt other major blows to Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions.
On Aug. 28, the Constitutional Court ruled that then-President Petro Poroshenko’s 2015 decree to appoint Artem Sytnyk as head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) was unconstitutional. On Sept. 16, the Constitutional Court also ruled that some clauses of the law on the NABU were unconstitutional.
The rulings did not explicitly say that Sytnyk was no longer head of the NABU.
However, there have been fears that Zelensky’s majority in the Verkhovna Rada would change the law in order to fire Sytnyk and appoint a Zelensky loyalist who would block cases against top incumbent officials. On Oct. 26, the controversial Kyiv District Administrative Court used the Constitutional Court rulings as a pretext to order Sytnyk’s dismissal.
The Constitutional Court also helped corrupt officials by canceling the previous law criminalizing illicit enrichment in 2019. The Rada had to pass a new law on penalties for illicit enrichment later last year.
The Constitutional Court also partially canceled the judicial reforms of both ex-President Petro Poroshenko and Zelensky in February and March 2020 and entrenched judicial impunity by canceling the law criminalizing unlawful court rulings in June 2020.
