05 May 2024, Sunday, 11:31 551

PGO forced to consider application against CCU judges due to absenteeism and unjustified payments

Editor: Roman Vaniyan

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The Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv has ordered the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) to consider the statement of the crime of the lawyer Volodymyr Bohatyr against the judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (CCU) Oksana Hryshchuk, Vasyl Lemak, and Petro Filiuk due to the fact of possible absenteeism during working hours and as a result of the unjustified receipt of judges' remuneration.

This is stated in the court decision of April 15, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

The court received a complaint from the lawyer in the interests of Bohatyr about the inactivity of the PGO, which was manifested in the failure to enter information on this fact into the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigation.

Bohatyr's statement states that judges of the CCU Hryshchuk, Lemak, and Filiuk systematically enter false information about being at the workplace in their timesheets while instead being outside the city of Kyiv on personal matters, usually at the place of their previous residence (Zakarpattia and Volyn Regions), as a result of which they unjustifiably receive their salaries for the time when their official duties are not actually performed.

The applicant noted that he sees in the actions of the mentioned judges the composition of criminal offenses provided for in Section 4 of Article 191 and Section 2 of Article 366 of the Penal Code of Ukraine.

On April 8, the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv received a complaint in the interests of Bohatyr's lawyer about the inactivity of authorized persons of the PGO.

Thus, for keeping records of the use of working time, the order of the State Statistics Committee 489 dated December 05, 2008, approved the standard form of primary accounting documentation of enterprises П-5 Worktime Accounting Table, which is the primary accounting documentation for labor statistics and the main document that is included in the accounting of the use of working time of all categories of employees, control over compliance by employees with the established working time regime, obtaining data on worked time, calculating salaries, as well as compiling statistical labor reports, i.e. it is an official document that gives the right to receive salaries to employees.

The applicant noted that the absence of an employee from work for more than three hours during a working day without valid reasons is defined as absenteeism within the meaning of the Code of Labor Laws of Ukraine and is qualified as an offense that entails disciplinary responsibility.

At the same time, the rights and duties, as well as the responsibility of judges of the CCU, are regulated by the special Law of Ukraine On CCU, in accordance with Clause 3, Section 1 of Article 21 of which, the commission of a significant disciplinary offense by a judge of the CCU, gross or systematic neglect of one's duties is grounds for dismissal from the position of a CCU judge.

The trial established that on April 1, lawyer Bohatyr sent a statement (notification) about the commission of a criminal offense to the email address of the PGO, which was received by an authorized person and registered.

As of the day the complaint was submitted to the court, no response was received from the PGO.

The court considered the lawyer's complaint and ordered the PGO to consider the application in the interests of Bohatyr and inform the applicant in accordance with the procedure and time limits provided by Article 214 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.

According to Bohatyr, while "the PGO and the NACB [National Anti-Corruption Bureau] refuse to register criminal proceedings against CCU judges, the Court of Appeal delayed for three months the review of the administrative report on the corruption of the acting head of the CCU and did not see any corruption offenses in his actions."

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, the Kyiv Court of Appeal acquitted the Acting Chairman of the Constitutional Court, Serhii Holovatyi, in a corruption case.

The NACB was asked to open a case regarding the possible corruption of CCU judges due to absenteeism.