As previously reported, as a result of the lack of due attention and active measures of state authorities regarding both the temporarily occupied and unoccupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the lack of real mechanisms for the protection of property and personal non-property rights of both residents of the region and internally displaced persons, real programs for the development of the region's industrial potential, on the basis of the Kyivstratpro civil society institute, a platform for public control over the activities of state authorities to resolve the conflict in the East of Ukraine, to develop solutions for the effective reintegration of Donbass was formed.

For a long period of time, experts in the field of economics, environmental safety, jurisprudence, social and humanitarian spheres sent numerous requests to state bodies in order to obtain the information and documents necessary for analysis.

Based on the results of the work, the following problem areas, which are ignored by the controlling authorities can be identified and thus, may be said, these authorities contribute to the commission and concealment of offenses.

The activities of the Ministry for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, which can rather be called inaction, veiled by eloquent posts on social networks and on the official website of the Ministry.

The Minister A.Yu.Reznikov probably decided to become popular thanks to fine-featured texts and photographs, rather than real actions to fulfill direct official duties, implementation of projects funded both from the state budget and from international organizations.

It should be recalled that within the framework of the Conflict Remedial Actions, Recovery and Capacity Building Pilot Project, funded by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the relevant Ministry did not involve the territorial communities of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, despite the fact that the successful implementation of pilot activities in the regions that have suffered from the conflict in Ukraine is an indicator of efficiency. Instead, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia and Mykolayiv regions were involved in the selection of pilot subprojects.

Thus, according to the results of the audit of the Accounts Chamber, obvious facts of ineffective and inappropriate use of funds allocated for the implementation of subprojects, which were supposed to become the subject of pre-trial investigation by law enforcement agencies of Ukraine were revealed.

However, for unknown reasons, the statement on criminal offenses committed by officials of the Ministry for Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons of Ukraine submitted to the State Bureau of Investigation has not been entered into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations yet, and therefore a pre-trial investigation has not been started.

Also, despite the appeal of a group of public deputies of Ukraine to the controlling authorities, namely the Accounts Chamber of Ukraine and the State Audit Service of Ukraine, with the requirement to conduct a new audit of the effectiveness of the use of state budget funds allocated to the Ministry for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, to date such events are not planned by the above authorities.

However, Kyivstratpro experts, as part of civilian control, independently apply to various state bodies in order to identify and prevent further inappropriate and ineffective use of funds allocated for the development of Donbass and assistance to people affected by the conflict.

As a result of a detailed study of the Act of Conduct, it was revealed that the Ministry for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine throughout the entire period of the implementation of this project, actively uses the services of expensive consultants in various areas, which once again may indicate the low qualification of the staff and management of the Ministry, as we have already stated more than once, as well as the misuse of funds.

So, as a result of studying contracts with consultants, as well as acts of services provided by the Ministry of Reintegration, it was revealed that during the implementation of the Conflict Remedial Actions, Recovery and Capacity Building Pilot Project consultants were paid 11,910,871 (eleven million nine hundred ten thousand eight hundred seventy one) hryvnias 89 kopecks.

The services provided by consultants and paid for by the Ministry from funds allocated for the development of territories and individuals affected by the conflict in eastern Ukraine are sometimes incredibly absurd.

For example, participation in meetings of the working group on the implementation of the Grant, meetings in the group for evaluating the procurement of consulting services, analysis of documents submitted by applicants for organizing and conducting trainings is estimated by the Ministry at 44,775 (forty four thousand seven hundred seventy five) hryvnias 33 kopecks; letters receiving by e-mail is estimated at approximately 16 775 (sixteen thousand seven hundred seventy five) hryvnias  34 kopecks.

At the same time, it was essential to recall that the staff of the Ministry is approved in the amount of 119 people, all departments are staffed and, of course, receive wages and bonuses for similar work, which is provided for by their job descriptions.

And this is only a small part of the abuse, inappropriate and ineffective use of funds by the Ministry of Reintegration.

Due to the identification of the above facts of financing individual entrepreneurs with a clearly fictitious range of responsibilities, Kyivstratpro lawyers prepared and sent to the Security Service of Ukraine a statement with a request to conduct appropriate audits and, in case of violations, to start a pre-trial investigation.

A separate, the same important direction for the close attention of the participants of the Kyivstratpro platform has been and remains the Dom TV channel.

By the order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated January 20, 2021, the integral property complex of the state enterprise Multimedia Platform for International Broadcasting of Ukraine was transferred to the management sphere of the Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine.

It should be noted that at the request of the Kyivstratpro Public Organization, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine provided information that in 2021 funding from the state budget is carried out according to the budget program "Ensuring the Information Sovereignty of Ukraine, Development of Languages of native people who live in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, financial support for the state foreign broadcasting system of Ukraine" of the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine.

In 2020, under the budget program "Production and broadcasting of television and radio programs for state needs, collection, processing and distribution of official information products, financial support for the state foreign broadcasting system of Ukraine", allocations in the amount of 260,376,000.00 (two hundred sixty million three hundred seventy six thousand) hryvnias were provided.

At the same time, after analyzing the content of the Dom TV channel, it is almost impossible to find the content produced by this TV channel; basically, the specified funds are used to purchase the content already produced by other TV channels and to rebroadcast it. At the same time, the cost of such content sometimes exceeds the cost of its production and broadcast by the original source.

Another interesting area of the "work" of the Ministry for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine is the State Enterprise Reintegration and Reconstruction, the placement of which was announced in Kherson, but within a few months after registration it "moved" to the capital. Probably, in Kherson, being in the immediate vicinity of the occupied territories, it is more difficult to implement possible corruption schemes and engage in misuse of funds.

Checkpoints on the separation line were transferred to this enterprise, and in a fairly short period of time, under the leadership of the State Enterprise, service centers were installed at the checkpoint to provide a variety of administrative and medical services to people crossing the separation line.

However, to put plastic prefabricated structures and solemnly open them at a time when the checkpoints are closed and almost no one crosses the separation line, this is a great idea for PR of management of the Ministry and the State Enterprise, but in no way caring about people, since at the moment the installed structures are not used, there are no personnel there, it is winter now, so we will see funding for major repairs or even complete replacement of the installed structures soon.

Another area that is under the close attention and civil control of our experts is the implementation of the project "Improving the living conditions of internally displaced persons in the east of Ukraine", for the implementation of which the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany allocated 25,500,000 (twenty five million five hundred thousand) euros.

That is, in fact, today instead of a government body created in order to solve the problems that have arisen in connection with the occupation of part of the territories of Ukraine, we have a government body that creates a beautiful picture for international donors in order to receive funds that could be used for inappropriate purposes, while completely not thinking about the real or at least close to the real needs of the region and its inhabitants, for whom donor and budget funds are actually allocated.

And even the basic needs of the residents of the temporarily occupied territories are not priority, but are generally absent in the minds of people who make decisions about certain actions to improve the situation in the region.

One example is the problem of receiving retirement money by residents of the temporarily occupied territories. Indeed, since the closure of checkpoints due to quarantine restrictions, most retired people - citizens of Ukraine living in the temporarily occupied territories, are without means of support. And the announcement of the opening of service centers that they cannot use is rather a travesty of the Ministry against socially unprotected categories of citizens and, as a result, antipathy and absolute unwillingness to reintegrate into the constitutional space of Ukraine, which completely contradicts the goals and objectives of creating the Ministry for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine.

Materials are provided by Kyivstratpro Public Organization

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