FLA: the BCU insists on resuming the work of the Coordination Center’s Supervisory Board
For five years now, the FLA system has lacked a functioning body to oversee its operations and promote independence and transparency in its management. Meanwhile, previously identified problems with the FLA system have not been resolved, and some of them have worsened and become more widespread.
Against this backdrop, the Bar Council of Ukraine considered the need to resume the work of the Supervisory Board of the Coordination Center for the Provision of Legal Aid.
In accordance with the Regulations on the Supervisory Board, approved by Order of the Ministry of Justice No. 2551/5 dated August 14, 2019, this body oversees the FLA system and promotes the independence of its management and enhances public trust. In particular, the Board evaluates the activities of the Coordination Center’s director based on the results of the review of annual reports, including financial reports; identifies and assesses political, financial, and other risks; and provides recommendations on how to prevent or eliminate them. It also provides the director with recommendations regarding priorities for the system’s development, the implementation of state policy, and the need to draft regulatory acts, and approves proposals on strategic directions, annual plans, and reports of the Coordination Center.
Describing the state of the free legal aid system, a member of the BCU and chairman of the UNBA FLA Committee Oksana Kadenko reported that none of the previously identified key problems have been resolved, and more than half of them have worsened and expanded in scope.
Among these, she cited the unchanged level of compensation for advocates’ work, difficulties in obtaining primary and secondary legal aid, as well as an increase in the number of cases in which the participation of an advocate is mandatory. At the same time, due to low compensation, advocates are refusing certain cases.
O. Kadenko drew attention to the expanding role of FLA centers in evaluating complaints and the quality of advocates’ work, the possibility of linking the conclusion, renewal, or termination of a contract to the centers’ assessment of the validity of complaints, as well as the absence in the legislation of a model for interaction between advocacy and the FLA system. She also reported that the Coordination Center has not responded to cases where both FLA advocates and contract advocates are engaged simultaneously.
Based on the report’s findings, Kadenko proposed returning to the fundamental requirement to resume the work of the Supervisory Board, which has not been functioning for five years.
President of the UNBA, BCU Lidiya Izovitova emphasized that the position regarding the resumption of the Supervisory Board’s work should be formalized through a resolution of the Bar Council of Ukraine and that a corresponding appeal should be sent to the Minister of Justice. Members of the bar self-governing body supported the proposal.
The full text of the resolution will be published on the UNBA website.
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