7 times less funds are provided for the safe education of one schoolchild in Kharkiv than for a student from the region: an official of the Kharkiv City Hall expressed doubts about the reasonableness and transparency of budget expenditures

In the conditions of the ongoing war on the territory of Ukraine, ensuring the safety of children in educational institutions is a matter of first necessity. Daily shelling and the threat of new attacks force parents and the state to pay close attention to the organization of safe education. At the same time, published data on the distribution of state funds for the construction of protective structures in Kharkiv and the region show a striking disparity, which caused outrage among the public.

Kostyantyn Lyska, Director of the Department for Improvement, Restoration and Reconstruction of the Kharkiv City Council believes, that the distribution of funds for the organization of safe training between Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region is extremely uneven.

According to him, Kharkiv received 16% of the total amount of state funds allocated for the construction of protective structures. At the same time, more than seven times less funds are provided for the safe education of one schoolchild in Kharkiv than for a student from the region.

“Kharkiv received only 16% of the total amount of state funds allocated to the region for the construction of civil defense protective structures, including underground schools.

3.1 thousand UAH is provided for the safe education of one schoolchild in Kharkiv, while for a student in the Kharkiv region, this amount is 22 thousand UAH, which is 7 times more.

From 2023, the city of Kharkiv received 345.2 million UAH, while the region received more than 2.5 billion UAH for shelter in educational institutions, while the number of students in Kharkiv and the region is almost the same: 108.4 thousand – in the city and 115, 8 thousand – in the region”, – said Kostyantyn Lyska.

He drew special attention to the fact that such a disparity in funding exists despite the presence of displaced children from the frontline areas of the region in Kharkiv.

In addition, the city hall official was criticized for the recent disclosure by the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration (OVA) of the cost of the shelter at school No. 124 in Kharkiv, which is estimated at 150 million hryvnias. He noted that this estimate was calculated by specialists of the regional Department of Capital Construction, which is a structural unit of the OVA itself. This raises doubts about the reasonableness and transparency of budget expenditures, because the cost assessment was carried out by a subordinate unit that is directly responsible for financing.

It should be recalled that the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center conducted a detailed comparison of the cost of building shelters in schools in Kharkiv and other regions of Ukraine. The results showed significant disparities in spending, which raises questions about the feasibility and effectiveness of the current allocation of resources. It is important to consider that this data can help identify weaknesses in the financing system and suggest ways to improve it.