HCJ Deputy Head Kvasha announces ambitious plans to appoint a suitable candidate as SJA Chairman by the year end
The working group for the selection of the head of the State Judicial Administration (SJA) is ready to listen to the public's comments on the integrity of candidates in order to elect a person to this position by the end of 2025 who will be trusted by international partners and Ukrainian society.
"The additional acceptance of documents was supposed to end on September 8, but we extended it until September 23. We calculated that we would meet the deadline set for us in the Roadmap, and we realized that it would be better to extend the deadline for submitting documents for another 2 weeks so as not to miss out on worthy and honest candidates," Oksana Kvasha, Deputy Head of the High Council of Justice (HCJ), who is a member of the working group, told Interfax-Ukraine in an interview.
According to her, there are currently 10 candidates who want to take the position of head of the SJA: five new candidates and five of those who previously applied and confirmed their desire to participate in the selection.
Speaking about whether there is reason to expect that the selection for the head of the State Judicial Administration will be successful, since there are problems with other competitions for judicial positions in Ukraine, in particular, for the High Anti-Corruption Court, Kvasha said: "I am moderately optimistic. Despite the fact that the competition for the Supreme Judicial Council was indeed a failure and people started talking about the judicial profession losing its authority, a lot of candidates applied for competitions for local courts."
The Deputy Head of the Supreme Judicial Council explained that during martial law, competitions for civil service positions were canceled. "At the same time, we introduced a kind of simplified selection procedure: we clearly defined the regulatory and legal framework and refused to conduct a cognitive test. If a person wants to take this position (head of the State Judicial Administration), then the preparation will not be difficult." Kvasha clarified that this is a working group, not a competition commission, so it is more like a quasi-competition - a selection with elements of a competition procedure.
According to her, there are no external experts in the working group, but the legal tests and situational tasks are developed by international partners. That is, such a methodology has been developed so that the results of the competition are not questioned by European partners.
"In this case, I hope that the person we choose will inspire trust in both our international partners and the judicial community," she noted.
Kvasha also assured that the working group is ready to listen to the public's comments on the integrity of the candidates.
"I am convinced that public organizations will be interested in the transparency of this competition - we are ready to work under the close attention of the public," she emphasized.
Answering the question of when exactly the head of the SJA will be appointed, the Deputy Head of the Supreme Judicial Council said: "The Roadmap stipulates that we must hold a transparent and fair competition in the 4th quarter of 2025. Therefore, we have ambitious plans to find a worthy person for the position of head of the SJA by the end of this year."
"When our partners provide financial assistance, they must trust the person who will be the administrator of budget funds. The way we ensure the financing of judges and court staff will ensure access to justice for all citizens of Ukraine," Kvasha said.