29 June 2021, Tuesday, 19:21 182

Main Scientific And Expert Department Of Rada Doubts Constitutionality Of Zelenskyy's Bill On Oligarchs

Редактор: Daria Zubkova

The main scientific and expert department of the Verkhovna Rada doubts the compliance to the Constitution of the bill of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on oligarchs.

This is stated in its conclusion to the bill, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

“Based on the results of the analysis of the submitted bill, the main department cannot support its adoption in the proposed form, taking into account numerous comments. The main department considers the main idea of the bill and, accordingly, all of its provisions in general doubtful in terms of their compliance with Articles 8, 19, 106 and 107 of the Constitution of Ukraine," the statement reads.

According to the Basic Law, the head of state cannot make or approve decisions that impose special legal restrictions and additional obligations on certain citizens of Ukraine compared to other citizens.

The National Security and Defense Council cannot be granted by law powers that are not vested in the President himself and which do not relate to the coordination and control of the activities of executive authorities in the field of national security and defense.

Also, the management sees in the procedure for recognizing a person as an oligarch signs of an illegal procedure that creates opportunities for abuse and does not contain protections against possible selective use.

"The person is not informed about the consideration of the issue on him, and he (despite the fact that the issue of imposing in relation to its prohibitions and restrictions is actually being decided) is not given the opportunity to take part in the corresponding procedure, to provide oral or written explanations, which is usually element of any procedure that entails restricting the rights of the individual," explain the experts.

Based on the list of signs of an oligarch listed in the project, the management believes that a fairly significant number of people can be enrolled in this category, who in practice may turn out to be ordinary representatives of large and even medium-sized businesses.

Experts also note that the ban on party contributions envisaged in the draft does not really eliminate the risks of financing parties by oligarchs through third parties or legal entities controlled by them.

The management calls the procedure for informing public officials about contacts with oligarchs, proposed by the document, ineffective.

"The abovementioned list of exceptions from contacts that do not require declaration is not completely thought out. For example, the subjects that must declare contacts with "oligarchs" include MPs of Ukraine. Consequently, if certain MPs of Ukraine are granted "oligarch" status, their colleagues the parliament will have to declare all meetings at a meeting of the faction, party meetings and even cursory meetings on the sidelines," the conclusion reads.

The department considers the approach to responsibility of public officials for failure to declare contact with the oligarch unjust and unacceptable, since a certain part of them are subjected to the strictest type of disciplinary punishment - dismissal, the rest contain only a declarative rule on responsibility and they "actually get off with public condemnation", and in relation to many, no sanctions have been established at all.

Besides, the department draws attention to the fact that without the introduction of a mechanism for checking, recording and proving cases of contacts between public servants and oligarchs, the relevant norms will be purely declarative.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Zelenskyy proposes the Verkhovna Rada identify as oligarchs persons who simultaneously meet four criteria: they are participants in political life, have significant influence on the media, own a monopoly on the state market and assets exceeding a million living wages.