State Registrar of Chernivtsi RSA Gergeliuk is reprimanded

State Registrar of Chernivtsi RSA Nikolai Gergeliuk, who with numerous violations of the current legislation "transferred" 17 communities of the canonical Church to the OCU, received a disciplinary reprimand from the management – an admonition. This is stated in the official response of the head of the Department of Culture of the Chernivtsi RSA, Oksana Filipchuk, dated May 15, 2020, received by the Consistory of the Chernivtsi-Bukovyna Eparchy of the UOC.

Earlier, the Chernivtsi-Bukovyna Eparchy addressed the RSA Department of Culture with a letter, in which it presented multiple facts of illegal actions (forgery, falsification, illegal issuance of documents to third parties, etc.), committed by Nikolai Gergeliuk during the re-registration of communities. For example, the description of gross violations of legislation during the registration of the religious community of the OCU in the village of Zadubrivka, Zastavna district, took 7 pages.

"In order to determine the degree of guilt, nature, and gravity of the disciplinary offense, the Department of Culture of the Chernivtsi Regional State Administration initiated disciplinary proceedings against the leading specialist of the Department for Religions and Nationalities of the Directorate for Culture of the Chernivtsi Regional State Administration, Nikolai M. Gergeliuk," says the answer of the head of the Directorate for Culture of the Chernivtsi RSA.

According to the proposals of the disciplinary commission, the head of the Culture Directorate of the Chernivtsi Regional State Administration decided to apply the type of disciplinary sanction to the above mentioned civil servant in accordance with clause 1 of Part 1 of Article 66 of the Law of Ukraine "On Public Service" – an admonition.” 

An admonition is a disciplinary reprimand, which the employer applies to an employee for failure to perform or improper performance of the assigned work functions. This type of disciplinary sanction is imposed for a minor offence, i.e. when the violation of labour discipline norms or the damage caused is insignificant.

Earlier, in his address to the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, Metropolitan Melety of Chernivtsi and Bukovyna pointed out that the leading specialist of the Department for Religions and Nationalities of the Directorate of Culture of the Chernivtsi RSA Nikolai Gergeliuk is a church servant of the OCU and is not objective in his decisions. "The requests of the clergy and believers of the Chernivtsi-Bukovyna Eparchy of the UOC to bring to justice the violator of laws, who by his actions incites sectarian strife and hinders the process of normalization of state and religious relations in the region, unfortunately, are not taken into account," said the bishop.