HACC Monitoring

Goal: 

increase the effectiveness of the High Anti-Corruption Court in Ukraine identify the strengths and weaknesses of the court’s activity and of the anti-corruption infrastructure in general

Actions:

Monitoring and assessment of the procedural and judicial aspects of the Court’s work 

TI Ukraine’s lawyers analyze the Court’s effectiveness based on the special methodology. It includes attendance of court hearings, analysis of the judicial review process in two instances, surveys, interviews with judges, Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office prosecutors and National Anti-Corruption Bureau detectives, as well as Judicial Security officers. The selection of criminal proceedings for monitoring covers all HACC judges.

The monitoring of the HACC’s activity is based on the following principles: non-interference in the process of justice, impartiality; objectivity and comprehensiveness; transparency; professionalism.

The monitors collect data based on specific templates and methodological guidelines. The monitors analyze court decisions, participate in judicial hearings as audience, fill out anonymous questionnaires and perform semi-structured interviews with the employees of the HACC, the SAPO, the NABU and the JSS.

During the survey, judges share what their workload is and how it affects their job and propose possible legislative changes to improve their performance.

Interviews with SAPO prosecutors and NABU detectives will provide an opportunity to see whether the HACC reviews the case files in a rapid and comprehensive manner.

The information on the Court’s work is also collected from open sources, such as briefings, conferences, presentations, manuals, etc. In addition, resources provided by public oversight under anti-corruption infrastructure agencies are used as well.

Analysis of the Court’s communications

Apart from analyzing the procedure and organization of the Court’s work, the project includes monitoring of its communications. TI Ukraine’s communications department analyzes the information component of the Court’s activity, monitors its mentions in open sources and provides recommendations on external communications.

Recommendations for the HACC

This research will include recommendations which will help to define the agency’s role and raise awareness of its work among the public. After the data has been collected, TI Ukraine will analyze information and develop an executive summary, a final report and recommendations concerning improvement of the Court’s performance.

The results of this monitoring will allow:

• to analyze the quality of decisions on each specific case;
  • to find out specific reasoning by certain judges and single out typical mistakes;
  • to develop recommendations to improve the organization of the Court’s work, such as document maintenance and administrative staff’s work;
  • to analyze the rationale presented in procedural documents of SAPO prosecutors and NABU detectives;
  • to study whether the procedural conditions for the functioning of the HACC and the JSS are followed.

The project “HACC’s performance monitored, analysed and presented to the general public” is implemented with the support of the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative (EUACI) – the leading anti-corruption support program in Ukraine funded by the EU, co-funded, and implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.

HACC cases

You can follow the cases of the High Anti-Corruption Court in the relevant section on our website.