“Ukrayinska Pravda” claimed President’s Office did not reply to its inquiry letters for more than a month

For more than a month, the Office of the President failed to reply to inquiry letters sent by the “Ukraiynska Pravda” online edition, as the "UP" reported. The “UP” asked the Office of the President about to visitors of the head of state and the bills he has signed. According to the newspaper, on June 25, the editorial office sent a request to the President Zelensky’s Office asking to provide the list of his visitors for the first month after the inauguration, referring to its previously consent to provide such a list. The UP also requested to be informed wether some precise top officials and oligarchs had come to the office. Another “UP”’s request concerned the number of bills that the head of state had signed and vetoed. The “UP” also asked to explain why Zelensky had not made any decision on the law "On temporary investigative commissions and temporary special commissions of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine", which had some provisions as to the presidential impeachment procedure. The web-based edition noted that in compliance with the Law on access to public information, the reply must be provided no later than in 5 working days since the date of receipt of the inquiry letter. If necessary, this period can reasonably be extended up to 20 working days and this must been confirmed in a written notification. The “UP” did not receive such notifications, so on July 11 its journalists tried to find out why they did not receive it and when the reply was to be sent. However, the Office of the President said that they were not responsible for letters sent to the press service. “We were told the same thing when we called all the phone numbers they gave us at the Office of the President. Besides that, there is no official number of the press service on the website of the administration. A spokeswoman asked us to resend the inquiry letter for second time. Once more, when we did not receive answer, “UP”  tried to contact the Office on 2, 5 and 6 August. However, they did not answer the phone. On August 6, a spokeswoman for the Office asked to duplicate the inquiry letters, ” as the web-based edition said.