Activists brought Yatsenuyk a luster, demanding lustration

Activists brought Yatsenuyk a luster, demanding lustration

Today patients, pharmacists, apothecary networks representatives and more than 200 NGO activists picketed by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, requiring lustration in the healthcare field. To demonstrate their claims, they had brought a special present for Prime Minster of Ukraine, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a huge luster (chandelier), on which they hung the pictures of previous government’s officials. Protesters demanded to terminate their employment immediately.

«It seems, that our officials do not understand the meaning of the word lustration, — says Dmytro Sherembei, the Chairman of Charitable Foundation Patients of Ukraine. — With the help of this luster we tried to explain in simple and accessible way, whom we demand to dismiss from performing their duties because of bribery and corruption in healthcare system. Because of their actions millions of Ukrainians had suffered, and thousands had died. It had happened, namely, due to their cuts into own pocket on overprized state contracts, bribes that they had taken for compromising licensing on import drugs, other corruption schemes,» — he adds.

The lustration list, created by the leading NGOs and representatives of the field, included: Head of the State Medicines Service, Olexiy Solovyov and this deputies; Deputy Minister of Health, Alexander Tolstanov, President of National Academy of Medical Sciences, Andriy Serdyuk and his deputies.

«The State Medicines Service, only officially, collects 100 million dollars per year from pharma business. However, according to unofficial statistics, it takes bribes in amount of 2 billion UAH annually. All of these grey expenses affect common Ukrainians, but end up in Mr. Solovyov’s and his deputies’ (Inna Demchenko and others) pockets.» — states Denys Shevchenko, representative of PHARMUDKRAINE Association. «Because of pressure of the corrupt state officials of the State Medicines Service, Ukrainian market starves for cheap and quality drugs. Because of their actions, our children and parents die, cancer patients are constrained to search for pills on the black market — in contrary they die. All of this makes Solovyov and his partners only richer in terms of billions, the share of which they had paid Yanukovych and Azarov,» — tells the representative of the field.

The activists had come to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Arseniy Yatsenyuk with a demand to fire out all officials in their list, as the State Medicines Service is his direct subordinate, and his government appoints deputy ministers and controls the Academy of Medical Sciences. «All of these officials were appointed by Azarov in the time of old system’s rule, — states Dmytro Sherembei. — These are the ones that had bribed and then brought the money to joint treasury of old government. It is a high time for them to be in jail, but not just to sit in their offices. We are the ones, who everyday had faced their tyranny, we will demand the new government and Arseniy Yatsenyuk to fire them out personally. We will also require the Prosecutor General’s Office to speed up the work on the cases that were started on certain corrupt officials.»

After the action, the broken luster, which symbolized the idea that lustration must destroy all corrupt schemes, together with an open letter and a list of corrupt medical officials was passed to Prime Minister’s reception. The NGO activists had also submitted files on corrupt officials with the list of offensive actions and corrupt schemes. For example, the President of the State Academy of Medical Sciences, Andrew Serduik, is charged of carrying out the number of offenses that amount to 600 mln. UAH, including inefficient use of public funds. In addition, he is accused of negligence while the L. V. Gromashevskiy Clinic relocation from their premises.

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Contact person:

Olexandra Ustinova:
067 550 15 70
Oleksandra.u@ucab.org.ua

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