Blocking of the delivery of “uncomfortable” Constitutional Court decisions once again confirms that the authorities need a manual and obedient body of constitutional jurisdiction
Yesterday, November 9, 2020, in a television program on one of the channels, People’s Deputies of Ukraine and the Chairman of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption Oleksandr Novikov once again manipulatively discussed the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on the declaration.
In particular, Anastasiia Radina, Member of the “Servant of the People” political party parliamentary faction and Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy, present in the studio, stated, “The Constitutional Court actually said that declarations can be omitted, that one can lie when filing them, that no one has the right to review them, and there will be nothing for that. That's what the Constitutional Court said“. The People’s Deputy did not stop there and continued to talk about the future fate of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. According to her, “The appointment of new members does not destroy the majority of votes that already exist in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine... On the issue of quorum, perhaps by raising the quorum or special requirements for decision-delivering, we will block bad decisions...”
However, her colleague, the deputy chairperson of the “Servant of the People” political party parliamentary faction, Olena Shuliak, clarified about the “bad” decisions. In her opinion, “For example, if the Constitutional Court of Ukraine strives to repeal the law concerning the deposit guarantee fund, it is an immediate loss of 270 billion hryvnias for the state; if the Court strives to repeal land reform, and it is immediately a loss of 1 billion dollars… It is good that today some judges refuse to participate in hearings, and in practice it blocks the work and delivering of such decisions that could have critical consequences for the state.
Then the manipulation of the figures continued: “I want to say how much each judge costs for our state - more than 21 million hryvnias of taxpayers' funds per year for the state – it’s just one judge of the Constitutional Court. They have a huge salary - more than 400 thousand. They have a huge staff of assistants - more than 20 people for each judge, plus a huge car park and so on...”
In view of the above, we inform the People’s Deputies of Ukraine and the public that in accordance with Article 30 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Constitutional Court of Ukraine” a judge of the Constitutional Court has two research consultants and an assistant whose positions belong to patronage services. Neither the rest, nor the car park is provided. Only one service car is assigned to a judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
The People's Deputy also made public false information about the salaries of judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
The State Budget for 2020 provides for funding of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in the amount of 314.5 million hryvnias, but it is impossible to simply divide this amount into 15 judges.
The expenses of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine are not only the remuneration of judges, but also the expenses for the provision of organisational, analytical, legal, information and logistical support, i.e. the exercise of constitutional jurisdiction in Ukraine.
For 10 months of 2020, about 2.5 million hryvnias were spent to pay the salary of one judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. The average salary of a judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine is 254, 000 hryvnias per month.
Oleksandr Novikov, the NAPC Chairman present in the studio of the TV channel, continued his usual rhetoric about the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and its activities in general. In particular, he accused the Constitutional Court of Ukraine that the body of constitutional jurisdiction of the country took over the functions of the Parliament of Ukraine. This is false, as the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in its activities is guided exclusively by the Constitution of Ukraine and current legislation of Ukraine. The court can only declare this or that norm unconstitutional, but it cannot create new norms of the law. At the same time, the NAPC Chairman does not abandon attempts to discredit the activities of the Constitutional Court at any opportunity, thus, deliberately misleading the public.
The above only testifies to the continued escalation of the situation around the Constitutional Court of Ukraine by interested parties and attempts to terminate its activities.
At the same time, despite all attempts to discredit the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and destroy its authority, there is an objective public assessment of the activities of the Court.
In particular, on November 10, a study conducted by Sociological Service of the Razumkov Centre from October 30 to November 5, 2020 was published, in which citizens provided for their assessment of the activities of the bodies of state power. The survey shows that trust in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine is higher than that in other state institutions, including the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption.
We emphasise once again that the Constitutional Court of Ukraine stand for the fight against corruption, for the creation of a democratic law-based state. At the same time, this should take place only within the framework of the Basic Law of Ukraine.
