242 million for inaction: DACK judges are still receiving money from the budget

Judges of the District Administrative Court of Kyiv (DACK) have collectively received over UAH 242 million in judicial remuneration in the three and a half years since the court’s liquidation.

On 18 June, the Supreme Court upheld the High Council of Justice’s decision to dismiss former DACK chairman Pavlo Vovk from his judicial position. But around 40 of his former colleagues still hold their positions and continue to receive substantial judicial remuneration. Since DACK’s liquidation, none of them has issued a single ruling, yet they are being paid for doing nothing. Among them are six judges who, like Vovk, are accused of creating a criminal organisation to seize state power and of issuing rulings on order.

In the past seven months alone, DACK judges have received around UAH 85 million from the budget. This sum will keep growing by at least UAH 12 million a month if the HCJ and the HQCJ continue to delay purging the system of judges from the “Vovk’s court.”

The HCJ should complete disciplinary proceedings against DACK judges as soon as possible — first and foremost against Vovk’s closest associates: Ablov, Pohribnichenko, Keleberda, Sanin, and Ohurtsov. The same HCJ is also sitting, without review, on submissions from the High Qualifications Commission of Judges (HQCJ) recommending the dismissal of three more DACK judges.

The HQCJ, for its part, needs to continue the qualification assessment of DACK judges. About 15 of them have already reached the final stage — the interview. Further delay gives judges the opportunity to resign and avoid assessment altogether: in recent months, three DACK judges with serious violations have already done exactly that.

Every month of delay in handling DACK judges’ cases and assessments means at least another UAH 12 million from the budget spent on judges who administer no justice at all — and one more chance for judges of the “Vovk court” to escape accountability.