On September 24, the court hearing on the appeal of the Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine against the resolution of Kyiv District Administrative Court passed on July 8, on administrative case brought by Civil Network OPORA regarding illegitimate actions of the Apparatus.
We remind that on July 8, Kyiv District Administrative Court has ruled that actions of the VRU Apparatus were unlawful and obliged it to provide OPORA a copy of manning table, including information about its structural subdivisions, job titles, number of employees, and salaries for every position.
However, the Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada has tried to appeal against the Resolution of the first instance court. On August 5, Kyiv Court of Appeal has started proceedings. Besides a request to nullify the resolution of District Administrative Court, the Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada has stated that Civil Network OPORA is trying to create a negative image of state authorities. OPORA would like to emphasize that such statement is extremely non-constructive and unreasonable. Taking into consideration that all demands of the organization are within the effective legislation, particularly Law of Ukraine on Access to Public Information, the very actions of the Apparatus pertaining to promulgation of documents, which are socially important, are disputable.
On September 9, Civil Network OPORA has filed a counter-appeal stating that the Court decision is valid and substantiated, and shall not be canceled. Besides that, argumentation of the appeal is contradictory to the effective legislation, and the position of the defendant is inconsequent in comparison to those stated in the first instance court. When rejecting to provide the manning table, the defendant stated that the document is an internal document and shall not be disclosed upon request. Such answer was received by OPORA on April 4. Later, in its appeal, the defendant emphasizes that the answer of the Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada on the request to provide manning table is lawful and reasonable, as long as the inquired information is free to access and the defender doesn't conceal the legal information in any way. On the basis of article 198 of the Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine, OPORA requested not to satisfy the appeal.
On September 24, Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeals satisfied the organization's request and confirmed the decision taken by the court of first instance without any changes. Thus, Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is obliged to provide a copy of the manning table to Civil Network OPORA.