‘We gathered the National Security and Defence Council, talked, and left”: Yuriy Nikolov on the corruption scandal in the MSEC and the disability of prosecutors

Ukraine once again found itself at the center of a high-profile corruption scandal that shook the most important state institutions. This time, corruption schemes affected the work of Medical and Social Expert Commissions (MSEK) and regional prosecutors’ offices, which caused a real wave of indignation among the public. This situation has become the subject of active discussion by opinion leaders, experts, journalists and anti-corruption activists who unanimously condemn the abuse of power and demand immediate changes.

Yuriy Nikolov, co-founder of “Our Money” publication considers, that the fresh scandal with mass corruption among the heads of the MSEK and regional prosecutors is very similar to last year’s – with the VLK and the TCC.

“They gathered the National Security Council, talked, and left. Corruption increased. A year has passed since then, the country has weakened, there are not enough soldiers at the front. Will there be real changes?

A year ago, after a series of scandals, Zelenskyi already convened the National Security Council regarding corruption in the VLK. And there, too, they decided to release, digitize, reform. But was anything done? Well, really – what was done by Zelenskyi’s clerks after Zelenskyi signed the decree and switched to other tasks? The same thing.

So let’s watch our hands. Zelensky did not order to liquidate MSEK. He ordered the clerks to draw up the necessary orders for this. Will they do it? It will be seen later. And in general – why liquidate MSEK? It performed an important function regarding the assignment of disability. Now there will be no one to do it?

The collapse of one structure to replace a new one with new personnel without punishing the predecessors, so that the new ones are not afraid to do the same crap as in MSEK? At the entrance to the commission, will the doctors simply be whitewashed? Will the father of presidential adviser Vlasyuk from Vinnytsia MSEK with 13 apartments and four Teslas be imprisoned for illegal enrichment? The Minister of Health also saw nothing in his vertical? Why isn’t he fired as Prosecutor General?”, Nikolov asks.

He also spoke about the dismissal of the Prosecutor General and the failure of last year’s decision to digitize the VLK:

“I am against the dismissal of the Prosecutor General at the president’s own will. Because this is a license to avoid responsibility. Not good. Back to the galleys to make bread. Fix it. And not run away to retire. Look for new prosecutors instead of disabled corrupt people.”

And for the failure of last year’s decision regarding the digitalization of the VLK, there should also be a separate analysis of flights (or their absence) in the vertical of the General Staff. Shorter. A lot can be said here. But the problem is that this time the price of failure is much higher than a year ago. Everything is worse at the front. There is less and less in the rear. Putin is preparing to crush us with missiles and a new front. If the problems with defense capability are not resolved, then the new president of Ukraine will not be called Volodymyr, but Vladimir. This is not a movie.”