This week we are covering the internal fighting in the Health Ministry and corruption allegations that have stalled Ukraine’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign – and led to a conflict between the government and the country’s main anti-corruption agency. We are joined by Veronika Melkozerova and Oleg Sukhov who have been reporting on the separate aspects of this big story.
Full transcript below:
Ukraine’s COVID vaccine procurement is complicated by government infighting
Elina Kent: Welcome to the Kyiv Post Podcast, where you can tune in to stories that give you a deeper understanding of Ukraine. I’m your host Elina Kent. I’m a multimedia producer and lifestyle journalist here at the Kyiv Post. This week we are covering the internal fighting in the Health Ministry and corruption allegations that have stalled Ukraine’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign — and led to a conflict between the government and the country’s main anti-corruption agency. We are joined by Veronika Melkozerova and Oleg Sukhov who have been reporting on the separate aspects of this big story. Welcome Veronika!
Veronika Melkozerova: Hello.
EK: What can you tell us about what’s happening with vaccination and the Health Ministry right now?
VM: As of today, more than 188 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered across the world. But not a single shot of those ended up in Ukraine. We are looking into why. While other countries started preparing for COVID-19 vaccines procurement ahead of time, Ukraine’s Health Ministry was busy fighting with its own subsidiary, an enterprise called Medical Procurement. The Health Ministry claims the Medical Procurement failed to buy not only COVID vaccines but many other crucially important medicines for Ukraine. The Medical Procurement in turn says it can’t act without special orders from the Health Ministry, which it failed to send on time.
EK: Ukraine signed its first contract to buy 1.9 million doses of the vaccines at the end of December. The vaccines are produced by the Chinese pharma giant Sinovac Biotech and supplied through a Ukrainian intermediary company called Lekhim.
VM: This deal was extraordinary, as normally COVID-19 producers deal with governments. Furthermore, in February the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, or NABU, started an investigation into this contract, suspecting the Health Ministry of buying the vaccines at an inflated price. I interviewed Health Minister Maksym Stepanov last Thursday and asked him to clarify the situation. The minister was defiant. He called all the accusations, as well as the investigation, a part of a defamation campaign against him and the government that scares away the vaccine producers, who are already not keen to sell vaccines to Ukraine. In our interview, Stepanov told me that they “almost have to beg the companies to sell the vaccines to Ukraine.” Indeed, the demand for vaccines is so high that the companies are quite secretive and cautious.
EK: Stepanov lashed out at the NABU during his morning briefing on Feb. 16, accusing it of trying to disrupt the COVID-19 vaccination efforts that are about to begin in Ukraine. Stepanov’s reaction is due to the NABU opening an investigation into alleged embezzlement during procurement of COVID-19 vaccines by the Ukrainian Health Ministry. The investigation looks into whether Stepanov deliberately ordered to buy vaccines from a Ukrainian intermediary company at an inflated price. Stepanov denies the accusations, saying that they “do not make any sense.” Vaccine producers had started to refuse to cooperate with Ukraine, Stepanov said, without naming any specific companies. Stepanov appears to have the support of Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers and even the Office of the President in this matter. Oleg Sukhov has more on this topic.
Oleg Sukhov: On Feb. 15, the Cabinet of Ministers submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a bill that seeks to fire Artem Sytnyk, the head of the NABU. The bill was submitted after President (Volodymyr) Zelensky called Sytnyk and harshly criticized him for starting the vaccine investigation, which we know from our sources at the NABU. Anti-corruption activists see the decision to fire Sytnyk as Zelensky’s reaction to the NABU corruption investigations into vaccine procurement and into Oleg Tatarov, the deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office. A Kyiv Post source in the NABU, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that before the bill was submitted, Zelensky called Sytnyk and harshly criticized the vaccine investigation. The Cabinet claims that its bill aims to bring the NABU in line with Constitutional Court rulings as part of talks with the International Monetary Fund, the IMF. However, the legislation may in fact further disrupt IMF lending since the NABU’s independence is a crucial condition of the fund’s memorandums with Ukraine.
EK: To better understand this situation, we need to discuss the 2020 Ukrainian constitutional crisis that’s been dragging on since last August. Since August, the Constitutional Court made several controversial rulings that aimed to undermine anti-corruption infrastructure in Ukraine — especially the NABU. First, the Constitutional Court ruled that the 2015 appointment of Artem Sytnyk as head of the bureau was unconstitutional. Then, in September, the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional several clauses of the Law on the NABU, including those that grant the president the right to create the NABU, formally appoint its chief, appoint members of the commission that selects the chief of the NABU and the audit commission under the presidential quota. In October, a Kyiv court led by judge Pavlo Vovk, a suspect in a NABU graft case, ordered Sytnyk’s dismissal despite having no such jurisdiction. We have a Kyiv Post podcast episode covering that situation with Kyiv Post journalist Oleksiy Sorokin on November 2, 2020. You can listen to it on Soundcloud, Spotify, Apple music, and the Kyiv Post website. Now, these measures were criticized by legal experts and anti-corruption activists as an effort by the corrupt establishment to destroy the NABU’s independence.
OS: Under the NABU law, the head of the NABU, Artem Sytnyk can only be fired if he resigns, reaches the age of 65, cannot perform his duties due to health reasons, is convicted of a crime, ceases to be a Ukrainian citizen, moves to another country, becomes a foreign citizen, has alimony debt or fails to file an asset declaration on time. He can also be fired if a court recognizes his family’s wealth to be ill-gotten or if a government audit finds the bureau to be ineffective. Any other reasons for his dismissal are directly banned by the NABU law. It’s not clear that the IMF would agree to Sytnyk being fired before his term expires, and Ukraine relies heavily on the IMF’s support.
EK: Now while numerous countries around the world started vaccinating their citizens in mid-December, Ukraine plans to start it in February. Ukraine is to receive doses of AstraZeneca vaccine followed up by 117,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech within the next six months. Medical workers who treat COVID-19 patients and front-line troops in eastern Ukraine will be the first in line for a free vaccination. At a press briefing on Feb. 16, Stepanov said that the supply of the first batch of the COVID-19 vaccine, that was expected to arrive already, was delayed by several days due to “logistical issues.” That was this week’s episode of the Kyiv Post podcast. I’m your host Elina Kent. You can read Veronika and Oleg’s articles on our website: kyivpost.com. You can also subscribe to our podcasts on all streaming platforms and follow along on our website. Stay safe, stay home, and subscribe to the Kyiv Post.
