Kyiv’s Pechersk district court has upheld the suit of Ihor Didenko, former chairman of the Naftohaz Ukrayiny (Oil & Gas of Ukraine) national joint-stock company, against the Cabinet of Ministers over his reinstatement in the previous office. This ruling was announced last Tuesday by Judge Mykola Zamkovenko.
According to the court decision, Mr. Didenko’s reinstatement was made retroactive to June 22, 2000, and he is to be paid all his salary for his period of “forced absenteeism.” The lawsuit was caused by the breach of the Code of Labor Laws, when Mr. Didenko was dismissed from the office he held, and numerous violations the government resorted to when making the dismissal decision.
Mr. Didenko was fired on June 21 as acting chairman of Naftohaz Ukrayiny on the basis of an official order. In legal terms, the dismissal was based on a Cabinet of Ministers resolution pointing to “non-fulfillment of an instruction from the Prime Minister of Ukraine.”
First Vice Premier Yuri Yekhanurov, acting head of government while Viktor Yushchenko is on vacation, said he has not yet made a “final decision” about whether to appeal the Pechersk district court ruling in higher courts. At the same time, Yuliya Tymoshenko, vice premier for the fuel and energy complex, thinks this should be done “by all means.” “I think we will instruct the Ministry of Justice to defend the government’s stand,” she said.
Moreover, as Interfax-Ukraine reports, Mr. Yekhanurov and Ms. Tymoshenko support the idea of employing Mr. Didenko at Naftohaz Ukrayiny. “I think Mr. Didenko should be given a job, and I think there are vacant places in Naftohaz Ukrayiny,” Mr. Yekhanurov said. Speaking about the performance of current Naftohaz Ukrayiny Chairman Vadym Kopylov, Ms. Tymoshenko said he is “an entirely state-minded (the only criterion? — Ed.) person” who together with the government “is running the industry (the fuel-and-energy complex — Ed.) according to plan.”
COMMENT
Viktor SUSLOV, People’s Deputy, member of the Verkhovna Rada Finance and Banking Committee:
“It looks as if the struggle for the office of Naftohaz Ukrayiny chief did not stop with the appointment of Vadym Kopylov: it is in fact going on. The point is not any court (it will be recalled that under the Constitution the courts in Ukraine are independent — Ed.) will take up a case where appointments and dismissals are subject to Cabinet of Ministers decisions. Thus if the court took the case and decided it in favor of the earlier fired Didenko, this in all probability means that the grouping which would like to see Mr. Didenko as Naftohaz head must now be winning another victory, and, accordingly, Yuliya Tymoshenko is losing. Of course, the Cabinet still can appeal. But if the government keeps silent and thus admits that Mr. Didenko was fired illegally, then all responsibility should be borne by those officials who had prepared the dismissal decision. This means Mr. Yekhanurov will have to take the blame because Mr. Yushchenko never passed such resolutions — a wise thing to do.
“In my opinion, frequent staff replacements are having a negative effect on the performance of Naftohaz. This puts off making the most important decisions (above all, during Ukrainian-Russian gas talks) with winter coming on.”
