The Office of the President of Ukraine has commented on the decision of the Constitutional Court on the inconsistency with the Basic Law of the decree of the fifth President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko on the appointment of Artem Sytnyk as director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).

"In connection with this decision of the Constitutional Court and with a conflict regarding the possible loss of powers by the Director of the Bureau, we expect from the acting director the effective implementation of anti-corruption policy in the period before the election of a new leader in an honest and transparent competition. We express our absolute confidence that NABU will certainly remain the core law enforcement agency that will ensure the application of modern anti-corruption practices and significantly improve the quality of the state anti-corruption policy," a statement posted on Saturday reads.

At the same time, the statement does not indicate who will be the acting director of NABU.

The President's Office expressed confidence that the NABU Directorate would organize work taking into account all new legal circumstances, and operational and investigative activities will not stop due to the clarification of the organizational structure and its coordination with the Constitution of Ukraine.

"We, certainly, take into account the decision of the Constitutional Court on the unconstitutionality of the decree of the previous president on the appointment of the director of NABU. This, by the way, is entirely the competence of the Constitutional Court. According to this decision, as we understand it, the judges stated that ill-considered, hasty, and often the then speculative practice of personnel appointments, which ran counter to the Constitution of Ukraine in the formation of the most important element of the anti-corruption architecture in the country, led to the need to make a specific legal decision on unconstitutionality," the President's Office noted.

At the same time, it is indicated in the statement that the Constitutional Court gave an assessment of the personnel appointments, and not the quality of the work of the body itself, and the fact that the appointment of the NABU director is unconstitutional does not negate the actions and abilities of the Bureau itself.

"Only one priority is extremely important for us - a tough and uncompromising fight against corruption at all levels with an obligatory result," the President's Office emphasizes.

Earlier, it was reported that the Constitutional Court announced the decision on the unconstitutionality of the decree of April 16, 2015 on the appointment of Sytnyk as director of NABU. The constitutional motion was submitted by 51 deputies to the Constitutional Court on May 20, 2020.

"To recognize as such, which does not comply with the Constitution of Ukraine (is unconstitutional), the President's of Ukraine decree No. 218/2015 on the appointment of Artem Sytnyk as Director of NABU, dated April 16, 2015," the Constitutional Court said.

It is noted that the above decree on the appointment of Sytnyk is no longer valid from the day the Constitutional Court makes this decision.

In addition, this decision of the Constitutional Court does not apply to legal relations that arose as a result of the exercise of official duties by Sytnyk.

The decision of the Constitutional Court is binding, final and one that cannot be appealed.