The liquidation procedures of the three highest specialized courts - the Higher Economic Court of Ukraine, the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine, the Highest Specialized Court of Ukraine for Civil and Criminal Cases and the Supreme Court of Ukraine - have been considerably delayed
As noted by NGL.media, the process of liquidation of these vessels started back in 2017-2018, but has not yet been completed. This means that these courts have not been operating for six years, but the state continues to spend hundreds of millions of hryvnia on them.
In addition to judges, who during this time received almost 250 million UAH without administering any justice, the state also pays salaries to members of liquidation commissions who would have to carry out the closure procedure - as a rule, these are employees of the apparatus of the same courts.
In just six years, 55 employees of the VHSU, VASU, VSSU and VSU were members of liquidation commissions, and their salaries have already cost taxpayers more than UAH 70 million.
Why are high courts being liquidated at all?
In 2016, the reform of the judicial system started in Ukraine. Then the Verkhovna Rada amended the Constitution regarding justice and adopted the law “On the Judicial System and Status of Judges,” which provided for the transfer of the powers of the three highest specialized courts to the new Supreme Court, created to replace the Supreme Court of Ukraine. Accordingly, VHSU, VASU, VSSU and VSU were subject to liquidation. The process of liquidation of the highest specialized courts began at the end of 2017, and the Supreme Court of Ukraine a little later - in mid-2018.
At the same time, the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine created liquidation commissions, to which all powers to manage the courts were transferred. It is these commissions that are responsible for the liquidation procedure. They prepare the legal entities of the courts for termination, in particular, they collect debts from debtors, deal with creditors, settle accounts with employees, inventory property and transfer it to the successor - the Supreme Court.
The first liquidation commissions of all four courts totaled 49 members: from nine to 17 people in each. All of them were full-time employees of the apparatus of these courts. The then acting head of the apparatus of both courts, Valentin Serdyuk, was appointed chairman of the liquidators of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Higher Supreme Court of Ukraine; the liquidators of the Higher Ukrainian Court of Ukraine were headed by the head of the financial support and budget planning department, the chief accountant of this court, Lyubov Solovyova, and the VASU was headed by the head of its apparatus, Alexander Shevchenko.
“At that time, given that there were many issues that had to be resolved during the liquidation procedure, from the very beginning, there were several liquidation commissions […],” recalls Alexander Shevchenko, “Then we transferred the property, transferred the premises, transferred funds and means, all that the Supreme Administrative Court had, to the Supreme Court […]. And when the leadership of the State Judicial Administration and the Supreme Court saw that the lion’s share of all the work had been completed, they decided to appoint a single chairman of the liquidation commission of the three highest specialized courts and the Supreme Court of Ukraine. The chairman of all liquidated courts was Lyubov Vladimirovna Solovyeva […]. I then went from being the chairman of the liquidation commission of the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine to becoming a member of it.”
Replacement of liquidators
The liquidators actually did the main work to prepare for the termination of the trials in the first six months of their activities, so the number of commission members in 2019 also decreased significantly. Already with a significantly reduced composition and under the chairmanship of Lyubov Solovyova, they existed for more than four years - from mid-2018 to the end of 2022.
For the liquidators of that time, their replacement came as a surprise, in particular for the chairman of the liquidation commissions of four courts, Lyubov Solovyova.
“This is what the leadership of the Supreme Court decided, maybe they wanted new faces, it was more convenient to work with new [members of the commissions]. It was strange for me too. They did it [appointed a new composition of the commissions] without warning,” says Lyubov Solovyova, “As soon as there was an order for a new composition of the liquidation commissions, in January 2023, I quit.”
The State Judicial Administration did not respond to NGL.media's question about the reason for the changes.
Alexander Shevchenko also did not make it into the updated composition of the liquidation commission, but, unlike Solovyova, he did not quit and continues to hold the position of head of the VASU apparatus.
“It turns out that a certain group of people came to the liquidation commissions, I did not choose them, I cannot comment on why they were appointed. “I don’t know, honestly,” Shevchenko assures, “But the work, the functionality that I performed, I continue to perform it, including what concerns the liquidation measures of the Supreme Administrative Court.”
Lack of specialists
Every year, the official staff of the courts during the liquidation process is reduced, which is logical, given the decrease in the volume of work in idle courts.
According to the Accounts Chamber, in 2021, there were 83 employees in the apparatus of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Higher Hungarian Administration of Ukraine, the VASU and the VSSU. Now, according to the current chairman of the liquidation commissions, Igor Romankiv, there are six people left in the apparatus of the three higher specialized courts
The updated liquidation commissions of the three highest specialized courts and the Supreme Court of Ukraine include practically the same people, the only difference is in the number of members: from seven to nine people, four of whom are not employees of the courts.
For example, Aleksey Kosenko is the head of the department of safety and labor protection of the department for organizing the disposal of state property of the Supreme Court, and Andrey Vashchenko is the chief specialist of the department for state property issues of the real estate administration department of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine.
Now there are only six employees left in the staff of the three higher specialized courts in a state of liquidation, and five of them (except for the head of the staff of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, Alexander Shevchenko) were included in their liquidation commissions.
The current chairman of all four liquidation commissions, Igor Romankiv, explains the involvement of employees of other judicial structures in the liquidation process by the lack of relevant specialists. “If we take into account the Supreme Court of Ukraine, which did not want to carry out the liquidation procedure and resisted in various ways, then three other courts: the Supreme Economic, the Supreme Administrative, the Supreme Specialized - they actually carried out the liquidation plan and got to the point where, if I’m not mistaken , there are six workers left for all three ships who are actually completing this work. Given the minimum number of employees and a fairly large volume of work, we attract other specialists for consultations,” says Romankiv.
Members and money
Igor Romankiv is a new face in the judicial system. Since 2010, he worked at PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia, in particular, in 2016 he was appointed director of passenger transportation and service, however, he was fired in 2018 due to the completion of the employment agreement. However, Romankov tried in court to recognize this decision as unlawful, but failed.
Before working at Ukrzaliznytsia, Romankov headed the Control and Audit Department in the Ternopil region and was a deputy of the Ternopil regional council. When asked by NGL.media how and why he got into the judicial system, Romankov answers vaguely - “they suggested.”
In November 2022, the State Judicial Administration appointed Igor Romankiv as the acting head of the apparatus of the High Court for intellectual property issues and at the same time as the chairman of the liquidation commissions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Supreme Court of Ukraine, the Supreme Court of Ukraine and the Supreme Court of Ukraine. The creation of the High Court for Intellectual Property was provided for by the same judicial reform of 2016, but it still exists only on paper, because judges have not been appointed there.
“As for the start of the work of this court: we have prepared everything. In the meantime, until it is fully operational, I have enough time to do other work that was entrusted to me by the head of the State Judicial Administration and the head of the Supreme Court,” Igor Romankiv explains his management of five courts at once, even if they are not working.
Formally, as Romankiv said, for all members of liquidation commissions this work is an additional burden that is not paid separately. All of them receive salaries only at their main place of work. As the acting head of the apparatus of the High Court for Intellectual Property, Igor Romankiv was paid an average of 46 thousand UAH per month in 2023. In general, for 12.5 months of work in idle courts, his salary was about 640 thousand UAH - this is four times less than the salary of the previous head of the liquidation commissions of four courts.
The head of the department of financial support and budget planning, the chief accountant of the Higher Economic Administration of Ukraine, Lyubov Solovyova, received a salary of UAH 9.7 million for five years of chairing the liquidation commissions. If in 2018 it was on average 128 thousand UAH/month, then in 2021 it was already 195 thousand UAH/month. This is the highest accrued salary for the year among all members of liquidation commissions for the entire period of their existence.
In second place in terms of salary is Lyubov Solovyova’s colleague, head of the financial and economic department of the VHSU and chief accountant Svetlana Komarchuk. Over 5 years and 9 months, she received almost 7.7 million UAH. Since 2018 and until now, she has remained a constant member of the liquidation commissions.
If at the beginning of her work she was paid an average of 66 thousand UAH/month, then in 2020 she reached a maximum of 161 thousand UAH/month. In the following years, the accrual for Komarchuk slowly decreased: 139 thousand UAH/month in 2021 and 110 thousand UAH/month in 2022, but in 2023, with the arrival of the new chairman of the liquidation commissions, it fell to 75 thousand UAH/month . There was less money, but more work - she was left as the only accountant for three higher specialized courts.
“I have the right of second signature in three courts. I was so beautifully “rewarded”, honored for six years: they hung everything [for work] that was possible. “I’m [now] like a universal person: one for everyone,” complains Svetlana Komarchuk. “Previously, there were people who performed the duties [of accountants in higher specialized courts], and then they were replaced - and everyone went where.”
Today, the entire apparatus of VASU consists of two employees - accountant Svetlana Komarnitskaya and chief of staff Alexander Shevchenko, whom we mentioned earlier. Alexander Shevchenko, as he said, has been working at the Supreme Court of Ukraine since its founding in 2005 - he started as an assistant to a judge, and in 2015 he was appointed chief of staff. For five years of membership in the liquidation commission, his salary amounted to 6.7 million UAH - on average from 94.5 to 131 thousand UAH/month.
“I know all this work. Therefore, perhaps now no one is looking for some kind of replacement for me. Because it is necessary to allocate not one, but three or four people,” explains Alexander Shevchenko. “Given that there were actually fewer and fewer workers every day, I slowly took over their functionality. Now I work as a clerk, lawyer, personnel officer and archivist.”
In just six years of existence, 55 court employees passed through these liquidation commissions and their work has already cost taxpayers more than 70 million UAH. At the same time, despite the significant reduction in the number of court staff during the liquidation process, they cannot be completely dissolved as long as judges remain on staff. We are talking about 43 judges who have not considered cases for years, but continue to receive good salaries.
In 2020, judges of the Supreme Court appealed the changes to the 2016 Constitution. Then the Constitutional Court declared the liquidation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine unconstitutional. This means that the judges of the Supreme Court have the right to administer justice in the same way as the judges of the Supreme Court, so they are awaiting transfer to the newly created court.
Judges of the three highest specialized courts are also waiting for transfer to appellate or local courts. The High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine should provide the relevant recommendations, and the High Council of Justice should make a decision. However, for six years, for a number of reasons, they did not do this.
The issue of liquidation of courts and the future fate of judges remaining in their states should be resolved by a law adopted at the end of November 2023 by the Verkhovna Rada and already signed by the president. In particular, this law, which came into force on December 27, provides that the Supreme Court of Ukraine will be renamed the Supreme Court, and accordingly, judges of the Supreme Court will automatically become judges of the Supreme Court.
As for judges of higher specialized courts, they will be able to submit applications for transfer without competition to any appellate or local court in which there is a vacancy within 30 days after the law enters into force. The High Qualifications Commission of Judges (HQCJ) will have another 30 days to satisfy these applications.
