The Ministry of Culture spent UAH 24 million on books to strengthen national unity, but a significant part did not reach readers: investigation
In 2022-2023, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine allocated more than 24 million hryvnias for the “Book for Strengthening National Unity” project, which aimed to publish and distribute literature to support cultural unity. However investigation publication NGL.media showed that a significant part of the financed books remains in warehouses, facing distribution problems.
According to the investigation, 45 out of 59 orders were received by only two publishing houses: Kyiv “SAMIT-Knyga” and Kharkiv “Folio”. These publishing houses, respectively, received more than 10 and 6 million hryvnias of state funding. At the same time, other large publishing houses were not aware of the program, in particular, publishing houses “Nash Format” and Vivat, whose managers said that they had not received any messages about participation in the selection.
The investigation also revealed that some of the publications printed with state funds were not widely distributed. For example, out of a thousand copies of the book “One Ukraine, One People. Conversations with Leonid Kravchuk” it was possible to distribute less than half – the rest remained in the warehouse. Some of the published books, such as “Bahmut: Chronicles of an Impregnable Fortress”, are sold online at lower prices than those paid for by the government.
According to the conclusions of the State Audit Service, the low percentage of distribution indicates a lack of effective project planning and requires a review of the approach to publishing policy. Despite this, the Ministry of Culture has no intention of abandoning the “Book for Strengthening National Unity” program – the deadline for submissions to a new competition runs until November 15.
In October 2024, Olga Dudchenko was appointed the new head of the “Center for the Protection of the Information Space of Ukraine”, which is entrusted with the implementation of the project. She has not yet commented on the situation.
