In accordance with the current legislation of Ukraine, Head of Kyiv City State Administration Vitaliy Klitschko must lay down his powers before the newly elected President of Ukraine. This was announced by Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Bohdan during a briefing.
He explained that according to Article 118 of the Constitution of Ukraine, head of local state administrations shall be appointed to and removed from their office by the President of Ukraine upon the submission of proposal by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
Thereby Part 2 of Art. 8 of the Law of Ukraine “On Local State Administrations” provides that the heads of the local state administrations are designated by the President of Ukraine for the term of authorities of the President of Ukraine. After the election of new Head of State, the heads of local state administrations continue to perform their authorities until the appointment of new heads of local state administrations.
“Unfortunately, since the inauguration of a new President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy the Cabinet submission on the dismissal of Vitaliy Klychko has not been received. I wrote a reminder in the name of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, in which I had asked to provide a submission on the dismissal of the Head of Kyiv City State Administration on the basis of the same articles – Art. 118 of the Constitution of Ukraine and Art. 8 of the Law of Ukraine “On Local State Administrations”, Andriy Bohdan stressed.
In addition, he reminded that Vitaliy Klitschko joined the The Petro Poroshenko Bloc-Solidarity party on August 28, 2015. He was elected the head of this political force, and therefore must bear political responsibility after the change of state’s leadership
“Since his party lost the election, his presidential candidate lost the election, so it would be logical for the head of local state administration to resign. Because it is his political, not economic activity,” he said.
The Head of the Office of the President also remined that the appointment of Vitaliy Klitschko to the post of the Head of the KSCA had been a part of so-called Vienna arrangements between Dmytro Firtash, Petro Poroshenko, Serhiy Lyovochkin and Vitaly Klitschko.
Andriy Bohdan noted that he had had two meetings with the Mayor of Kyiv in the Office of the President. During these meetings the Head of the Office of the President asked six times Vitaly Klitschko to refuse the institution of “watchmen” and get rid of corruption schemes in the capital.
“He has lost control of the situation in the city during last five years. Mayor of Kyiv Vitaliy Klitschko confirmes that he does not really control the Kyiv City Council. There are two or three “watchmen” who have certain groups of deputies. And if he does not find a compromise with them, there will be no majority in the Kyiv City Council and, accordingly, he cannot be an effective Mayor. Vitaliy Klitschko stresses that he has nothing to do with corruption and theft, he understands that something is going wrong, but he cannot do anything about it,” the Head of the Office of the President added.
Andriy Bohdan also noted that the information which had been published in mass media about possible abuses during the construction and reconstruction of certain objects of the capital infrastructure would be transferred to law enforcement agencies.
“All these facts are published on the Internet, and today we are applying to law enforcement agencies to verify relevant information that has been published by journalists,” he stressed.
The Head of the Office of the President also said that a lawyer of one of “watchmen”, who prevent Vitaliy Klitschko to effectively manage the city, had got in touch with him.
“He suggested that work with the local budget of the Kyiv City Council and the City State Administration would allow them to receive $ 40 million a year. He asked don’t touch the Head of Kyiv City State Administration as well as suggested to split the budget in half. Unfortunately, because I was not ready for such a meeting, I was unable to record this information. This information would be also be transmitted to law enforcement agencies,” Andriy Bohdan said.
According to Andriy Bohdan, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy is considering several candidates for the post of the Head of Kyiv City State Administration at present.
“This is a political decision, a political responsibility of the President. I told Vitaliy Klitschko at meetings that as he was a well-known public figure, he could also be one of the contenders. If the people and authorities see that things have changed in Kyiv, then he can be reassigned,” the Head of the Office of the President said.
