On Thursday, 14 May, the Dnepropetrovsk Administrative Court of Appeal considered the Ministry of Infrastructure’s appeal against the Dnepropetrovsk District Administrative Court’s decision of 20 February 2015 that ordered the ministry to stop the competition for the the posts of general director of the State Railway Administration (Ukrzaliznytsia) and directors of the Boryspil international airport and the Lvov airport (the competition was suspended by decision of the Ministry of Infrastructure on 27 February 2015). The appeal court accepted the Ministry of Infrastructure’s petition to lift the suspension of the competition, the delo.ua publication reports.

As reported, the lawsuit was filed by Kyrylo Zvonarev, one of the participants in the competition and a former top manager with AeroSvit airline, who failed to qualify for the next round of the competition.

Meanwhile, in accordance with the Cabinet of Ministers resolution No. 777 “On the Competitive Selection of Heads of Business Entities in the Public Sector of the Economy” dated 3 September 2008, a new version of which was recently approved, it is necessary to begin the competition from scratch.

"Unfortunately, this will mean another delay in appointing the heads of the abovementioned companies. However, this measure is necessary to break the system and ensure that state-owned enterprises are managed by qualified managers," the Ministry of Infrastructure said in a statement.

As reported, the competition was announced 31 December 2014. A longlist of 11 candidates for the post of Ukrzaliznytsia director was selected after evaluations and interviews. After that, three candidates were selected and their names submitted to the Nomination Committee. The three candidates were Dina Nemyrovich, the financial director and director of strategy at the Farmak company; Yevhen Romaschin, the general director of the Corum Group; Daniel Valk, the general director of North American Interpipe (Houston, United States) until October 2014.

However, it became known on 24 February that the Nomination Committee had decided to consider the entire longlist of candidates for the post of head of Ukrzaliznytsia.

The candidates for the post of head of the airports were not announced.