It appears Sytnyk will remain in office until the end of his term, but without powers. Artem Sytnyk Photo: facebook.com
For a week now, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has been collecting signatures for an extraordinary session to consider a bill to dismiss Artem Sytnyk, director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine. However, the collection of parliamentary signatures has suddenly paused. We investigated the reason for this pause, and why Artem Sytnyk shouldn't relax. "Apostrophe".
Permanent anti-corruption official
Attempts to remove Sytnyk from his post began just a couple of years into his tenure: in December 2017, coalition lawmakers first drafted a document that greatly simplified the dismissal of the NABU director. But after a wave of criticism from Western partners, the bill was quickly forgotten.
Sytnyk himself prompted the reopening of the issue of his tenure in office in 2019. The police filed an administrative report against NABU head Sytnyk for a corruption offense for an undeclared vacation at a hunting lodge in the Rivne region. For this offense, the top anti-corruption official was fined and, after losing his appeal, added to the register of corrupt officials, a fact his opponents constantly point out.
Artem Sytnyk suffered an unusually severe blow in 2020. Last August, the Constitutional Court ruled President Poroshenko's decree appointing the head of the NABU inconsistent with the Constitution and partially overturned the provisions of the law on NABU due to the constitutional absence of presidential authority to appoint the director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau. Furthermore, in October, the Kyiv District Administrative Court ordered the Ministry of Justice to change the information on NABU's leadership in its registers. However, the ministry refused to comply with the court's decision, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised G7 ambassadors that the District Administrative Court's decision would not affect Sytnyk.
Dual power in NABU and bargaining with the IMF
However, in February, Bankova Street took the lead anti-corruption figure seriously: on February 15, the Cabinet of Ministers drafted a new bill that would automatically remove Sytnyk from his position as head of the NABU. The very next day, the document was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada. Apostrophe's sources noted that the idea originated with the Presidential Office. The reason for the head of state's displeasure allegedly concerns a highly sensitive issue for the government: the procurement of COVID vaccines, which the Ministry of Health has been struggling to secure, amid ongoing scandals.
The fact is that in early February, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) opened a criminal investigation into possible abuses by the Ministry of Health's leadership during the procurement of coronavirus vaccines from China. Health Minister Maksym Stepanov called the accusations baseless and alleged an attempt to disrupt the start of vaccinations in Ukraine. As a result, vaccines began to be purchased from India. Bankova Street, clearly not pleased with the Bureau's efforts regarding vaccinations, decided to revisit the issue of Sytnyk's dismissal—albeit under the formal pretext of bringing the NABU law into line with the Constitution.
"The decision to dismiss Sytnyk is on the table. The bill to reshuffle the NABU leadership, drafted in pursuance of the Constitutional Court's ruling that the Agency's director cannot be appointed by presidential decree, calls for the dismissal of the NABU director and a competition for the position. The proposal is that the current First Deputy Director, Gizo Uglava, will temporarily head NABU until the competition is held. He worked closely with Sytnyk, has a good reputation, and as a compromise and interim option, he suits our partners, but a final decision has not yet been made. The issue of Sytnyk's whereabouts after his departure is being discussed, but the likelihood of the NABU director's resignation is quite high," Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Penta Center for Applied Political Studies, told Apostrophe.
It's telling that this time, none of the Western "lawyers" for NABU publicly defended Sytnyk. However, there are those in the Verkhovna Rada who actively criticize the government's initiative and categorically oppose Sytnyk's dismissal. For example, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, first deputy head of the Anti-Corruption Committee and a member of the Holos party, believes that the adoption of the law will lead to "dual power" within the bureau.
"At the last minute, the Cabinet of Ministers' draft included a provision stating that the current first deputy will act as NABU director. However, this bill doesn't create conditions for dismissal, meaning Sytnyk could be reinstated through any court, but the first deputy will also have authority, meaning we're getting dual power within NABU," Yurchyshyn told Apostrophe.
In his opinion, Zelensky's entourage is discrediting the government in front of Western partners, and the president is playing a suicidal game of "exchange Sytnyk for an IMF tranche."
"The signature collection for the extraordinary session began on the day of the visit of European Council President Charles Michel. Its purpose was to demonstrate President Zelenskyy's inability to uphold the guarantees of NABU's independence he gave to his European partners in November 2020. As soon as the signature collection became known, its initiator, 'servant' Artem Dmytruk, suddenly fell ill. Unofficially, David Arakhamia claimed that when the signature collection stopped, there were about 120 signatures, but those who have seen the signature sheets claim there were several dozen. As a result, the Office of the President instructed not to facilitate the signature collection, but not to interfere with it either. This was noticed in the West and the issue was raised during a conversation with Zelenskyy," says Yurchyshyn, explaining the halt in signature collection for the bill's consideration.
But there's another version of events: the Presidential Office let Sytnyk's resignation slide, as the main irritant—the criminal case over the procurement of vaccines—was shelved by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). "Sytnyk realized that criminal cases related to vaccinations were a major reputational issue for the president, and so he backed down. Consequently, Bankova also decided not to push for Sytnyk's resignation," an informed source in the Presidential Office told Apostrophe.
A "lame duck" at the head of anti-corruption campaigners
Not all political figures and experts see Sytnyk's early resignation as a negative. For example, Vitaliy Bala, Director of the Situation Modeling Agency, recalls that when the Bureau was created, Ukrainian society had quite high expectations regarding the effectiveness of anti-corruption officials, which were not met.
"When NABU was created, it was supposed to be 'holier than the Pope,' and, according to opinion polls, initially enjoyed high levels of trust. In any other country, Sytnyk would have been fired long ago after the court's ruling declaring him corrupt. Essentially, the 'dancing around the fire,' that is, around Sytnyk, demonstrates that the political elite doesn't understand that if they continue this dance, they will become like aborigines. Zelenskyy needs to demonstrate political will and turn the page on this matter, which is damaging Ukraine's image and reputation, causing infighting and confrontation. If Sytnyk himself is incapable of writing his resignation, then we need to find a way to fire him," Bala told Apostrophe.
It seems not only Ukrainians themselves but also our Western partners have begun to reflect on the effectiveness of the current NABU leadership. "There's a lot of criticism of Sytnyk and NABU, claiming that their performance over the past five years hasn't been strong enough, and this is unlikely to please our Western partners, who may have concluded that NABU's leadership needs to be updated. After all, while previously any criticism of NABU or decisions regarding the Agency would have provoked a sharp public reaction from G7 ambassadors, there's none now," says Volodymyr Fesenko.
Be that as it may, the government's bill has not yet been reviewed by the relevant committee. Moreover, there are at least 11 alternative bills. In other words, it faces a lengthy review in committee and then in the floor. Each bill will be reviewed separately, and there will be a huge number of amendments: it is impossible to promptly consider the Cabinet's initiative without violating the rules. And given the fact that Bankova, angered by Sytnyk, appears to have decided to put the issue on hold, a vote is unlikely.
Meanwhile, the head of NABU, in a semi-legal capacity created for him by the Constitutional Court, will await the end of his term—that is, April 16, 2022. With the head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office absent, a competition for his position has been pending for over six months, the NABU director will also have little need to worry about investigating new high-profile cases. There's simply no one left to handle them, after all.
Denis Zakharov
FILE: ARTEM SYTNIK. THE RICH LIFE OF THE CHIEF ANTI-CORRUPTIONIST
In topic: The roof is leaking: Why the US isn't standing up for NABU Director Sytnyk
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