THE DISCIPLINARY RESPONSIBILITY OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS ACCORDING TO THE LAW OF UKRAINE «ON STATE SERVICE» (2015): LEGAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

Today a special attention is paid to the discipline in the activity of public officials, analysis of the main provisions on the discipline in the activity of public officials and legal requirements for their activities. As one of the main problems of the state apparatus is breaking a law, violation of prohibitions and restrictions in the field of prevention of corruption. The article deals with theoretical and practical issues of disciplinary responsibility of public officials in Ukraine and analyzes some features of development of public service, a critical analysis of the existing legislation for state service is made, identified the shortcomings in the Law of Ukraine «On State Service» 1993. The disciplinary responsibility of public officials is a type of legal liability in administrative law. It is found social and legal mechanism of formation of legal liability of public officials. The grounds for the disciplinary responsibility of public officials are violations of official discipline, violations of restrictions and prohibitions, abuse of official ethics. The new Law of Ukraine "On State Service" (2015) defined grounds for the disciplinary responsibility of public officials, types of disciplinary sanctions, the stages of disciplinary proceeding. The new Law determines the definition of the concept of disciplinary offence, sanctions and procedural grounds for their application. The new Law implemented certain provisions of Recommendation №R (2000) of Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the status of public officials in Europe. Failure by public officials to fulfil their duties, whether intentionally or through negligence on their part, may lead to the institution of disciplinary proceeding. In this case, the disciplinary proceedings must be adversarial and the official concerned should be entitled to be assisted by a representative of their choice. Disciplinary action must be lawfully established. Particular attention is paid to the importance of a new understanding of the content and structure of disciplinary responsibility of public officials as an institution of administrative law, rather than labor law. In the article the distinctions between «disciplinary proceedings» and «disciplinary procedures» are formulated. It is concluded that the provisions on disciplinary responsibility and disciplinary proceedings in the new Law of Ukraine «On State Service» generally meet European standards, but still exist some issues that need further regulation.