March 3, 2018

This issue of our updates covers:

- Rada voted draft law on anticorruption court in the first reading;
- Head of Health Service of Ukraine selected #victory; 
- #victory Naftogaz won in the Stockholm arbitration tribunal against Gazprom;
- State fiscal service putting pressure on Naftogaz chief Koboliev;
- EU Ambassadors decide to lift sanctions on former Yanukovych's allies Lukash and Klyuyev;
- Update on the case against Shabunin;
- Recommended reading

President's Draft Law on Anticorruption Court Adopted In The First Reading

On March 1 the Rada adopted draft law No7440 on anticorruption court in the first reading, pawing the way for its improvement in line with Venice Commission's recommendations for the second reading. Now Members of Parliament have two weeks to submit the amendments to the Committee on Legal Policy.

Head of the People’s Front faction, Maksym Burbak, said in the Parliament: “We propose that the draft law is amended for the second reading according to the Venice Commission's recommendations... [Important] to engage the representatives of the international partners in the selections of judges. The HQCJ will have powers for final approval of the candidates. However, they won't be able to ignore the no-confidence, voiced by the Council [of the international experts]”.

He also mentioned the importance to harmonize court's jurisdiction with NABU's and change excessive requirements to the judges. Original text. 
In case you missed it, AntAC's recent brief on the international involvement in the selections of judges. 

Chief of Health Service of Ukraine Selected

On February 27 the chief of the National Health Service of Ukraine was selected. Oleh Petrenko has management experience of the largest private clinics in Kyiv. In 2005-2006 he served as the adviser to the Minister of Healthcare. It is worth mentioning that Petrenko was among 12 experts that developed a reform concept for the healthcare which formed the basis of the law adopted by the Verkhovna Rada.

Given tight schedule of the competition, overnight AntAC analyzed background of the candidates and kept the public informed about the course of the selections, which contributed to the victory. 

The Service is a new body established within the healthcare reform that is virtually to control all the payments in the field of healthcare, choose hospitals that receive the state funding and supervise distribution of over 100 billion UAH annually on covering expenses on the patients. "The money follows the patient" slogan is to be controlled by this very Service. It is the Service that will act as a purchaser of the services, calculate rates that the state pays for the patients, make agreements on the healthcare service for the population and much more.

Naftogaz Won in the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal Against Gazprom

Source: twitter of the Naftogaz

The Stockholm Arbitral Tribunal found that Gazprom had defaulted on its obligations regarding volumes to be transited and awarded damages of USD 4.63 billion. The award means that Gazprom will have to make payments to Naftogaz in the order of USD 2.56 billion after residual payments for gas delivered in 2014 and 2015 have been settled. More details. 

In the meantime, Ukraine's State Fiscal Service served Naftogaz CEO Andrii Koboliev notices on two personal fines amounting to 7 billion and 1.3 billion UAH over Naftogaz's reluctance to document and pay for the natural gas Russia’s Gazprom supplied to the areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions which are temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation. Full text. 

EU Ambassadors Decide To Lift Sanctions On Former Yanukovych's Allies Lukash and Klyuyev

EU ambassadors decided to prolong sanctions against former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and 12 of his associates, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Brussels reporter Rikard Jozwiak has tweeted. However, he added that former Justice Minister Olena Lukash (on the picture) and former MP Serhiy Klyuyev were removed from the list. More details. 

Update On Case Against Shabunin

On February 26 a court hearing was held in the case against Vitaliy Shabunin, Head of Board of the AntAC. The court questioned provocateur Filimonenko's ally and postponed the hearings till March 27 to translate the expert's documents.

During the interrogation of Filimonenko's associate Anton Hryniov, it turned out that at the time of the incident on June 8 the latter passed a "non-documented internship", and was not a journalist, though he showed a journalistic ID. Other mismatches were detected in his testimony, specifically the date of opening of their joint with Filimonenko information agency "Holos Narodu". 

Hryniov accompanied Filimonenko in June 2017, when the incident with Shabunin occurred near the military enlistment office. In May 2017, Hryniov was also in the airport meeting AntAC Board member Oleksandra Ustinova after she returned from the holiday.

Also, the prosecutor, Filimonenko and his attorneys strongly objected to involvement in Hryniov's interrogation a media expert and lawyer Taras Shevchenko "as the witness at that time was an intern, not a journalist". Then Filimonenko's lawyer said that he needs translation of documents (diplomas of world universities and schools), which confirm Shevchenko's professionalism and qualifications. The court took a break to allow the translation of documents to Ukrainian.

Background information on the case. Medical examination in the case against Shabunin is falsified — attorney. 

Recommended reading

Palazzo d’Avakov in Italy - Nashi Groshi
 

Copyright © *2018* Anti-corruption Action Centre*, All rights reserved.

Should you have any questions or comments please contact Olena Halushka at: ohalushka@antac.org.ua

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