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StateWatch selects winners of competition of informational materials on spending to restore the healthcare system

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StateWatch expert organization has selected three winners of the Competition of Informational Materials on Expenditures to Restore the Healthcare System. These are Alyona Melnyk, an editor at the Public Procurement Department of the “KyivVlada” online media, Anastasia Dziuba, an editor of the informational Portal “Grechka”, and Olena Harahuts, an editor of the “Litsa” newspaper.

Alyona Melnyk submitted three publications on spending to restore medical institutions destroyed in the Kyiv region in the aftermath of the Russian invasion, renovation of the Kyiv Municipal Hospital No 4, and Oleksandrivska Clinical Hospital. All cases, the reporter investigated, had one thing in common – the contractors had been selected beyond any competition.

When the Kyiv region was de-occupied, we started to actively analyze all monetary flows, though the funds, peculiarly, which were allocated for first priority restoration works were not provided through Prozorro. We wrote a series of texts which described current repair works. We understood that all medical institutions constituted a huge separate item. As it turned out, all medical institutions in the Kyiv region were restored by just one company selected without any competition. So, we investigated into why it had happened that way,” shares Alyona Melnyk, an editor of the Department of Public Procurement of “KyivVlada” online media.

In her competition publication, “Will You Die from Hunger? How Patients Are Fed at Medical Institutions of the Kirovohrad region” Anastasia Dziuba, the second winner and editor of the “Grechka” Informational Portal, investigated how medical institutions in the Kirovohrad region spend money to feed their patients.

“Several years ago, patients complained about the food at hospitals. Following the reform of the health-care system, when hospitals turned into non-commercial municipal companies, these institutions were assigned more powers, though the process itself was accompanied by reduced control over what was going at them. We focused on procurement at medical institutions. Some things concern us as we are not able to learn what patients get on their table, for example, procured sour crème or crème product. This needs to be inspected. People got interested in the publication because anyone can become a patient,” says Anastasia Dziuba, an editor of the “Grechka” informational portal.

Olena Harahuts, an editor of the “Litsa” newspaper, won with the publication on the reconstruction of the Dnipro Children’s Hospital No 5 in Dnipro.

The reconstruction of the hospital has been underway since 2019. Hundreds of millions of hryvnas have been allocated for this reconstruction, but when I was there, looking inside through windows, I did not see that the work had been accomplished. They simply don’t want to complete the reconstruction. Therefore, this is likely to be benefiting someone…“, commented Olena Harahuts, an editor of the “Litsa” newspaper.

More details about the completion results can be learned from the video interview with the winners at the link.  

The competition of informational materials on spending to restore the healthcare system was aimed at drawing the attention of society to the issues of accountability, transparency, and effectiveness of expenditures to rebuild healthcare institutions as well as motivate media people, investigators, and civil activists to research this matter in the future. 

The competition has been organized and held with the financial support of the European Union. StateWatch thinks tank bears exclusive responsibility for its organization and content, which does not necessarily reflect the position of the European Union.