The Results of the Very First Audit of the High Anti-Corruption Court: What Are the Findings?

On December 24, the Accounting Chamber published a comprehensive audit of the High Anti-Corruption Court for the first time since its inception in 2019. 

The auditors concluded that in 2019–2023 and in the 9 months of 2024, the HACC acted in accordance with the current legislation. Among the difficulties are the lack of personnel and the lack of necessary premises.

When preparing the audit report, the Accounting Chamber held consultations with TI Ukraine experts. Some identified problems coincide with those that we noted in our studies:

• delays in the hearing of cases due to limited procedural mechanisms to counteract certain abuses of rights by participants in the proceedings;
•  the need to hear cases anew in case a judge is replaced;
•  the lack of a development strategy of the HACC as an institution;
•  the need for new premises, especially given the potentially higher number of judges. 

According to the auditors, the percentage of overturned and amended decisions by higher instances needs to be tracked; other mechanisms for assessing the performance of the court should be improved.

Based on the results of the audit, the Accounting Chamber came up with recommendations to various public authorities, in particular:

• Cabinet of Ministers: provide the HACC with proper premises, develop a draft law to continue to hear cases if a judge is replaced;
•  Council of Judges: include the percentage of overturned and amended decisions in the court performance indicators;
•  High Council of Justice: develop indicators of the average duration of cases for anti-corruption categories;
• HACC: formulate and approve a development strategy by the end of 2025, ensure that qualitative indicators are determined in budget programs, improve the internal control system.