Very soon kids will get their gifts from St Nicholas, who, according to legends, did a lot for charity and a lot of good things both for children and for poor adults. Unlike our officials, whose incompetence and legal-regulatory negligence often lead to a deterioration of the already socially vulnerable categories of the Ukrainian population. One of the recent examples is the ineffective management of the subventions from the state budget by local ones – for the development of family forms of parenting and provision of housing for orphans and deprived of parental care, the main manager of which is the Ministry of Social Policy.
“The Government has made another step towards the provision of housing for orphans and children deprived of parental care, reducing the risk of their entry to residential institutions!”. Such great news appeared on the government portal on November 15, 2017. It was then that the government first approved the procedure and conditions for the provision of this subvention, which was assigned to local budgets for the creation of foster families and family-type children’s homes in 2015-2016, but due to the irresponsible support of such families by the state and, consequently, to the lack of willing to become parents-caregivers, for two years this subvention was not used even by a third. A month and a half before the end of the budget year-2017, according to the government’s plan, for the allocated 277.7 million hryvnias of subventions the regions had to buy 76 and build 7 family-type children’s homes, that will host 600 children, as well as purchase 328 residential apartments of social value for 555 children. This is weird, but they almost managed to deal with this task, as on February 5, 2018, Deputy Minister of Social Policy of European Integration Oleksandra Churkina, who manages this issue, made a report on her FB page. However, many orphans still haven’t moved to their new houses. Some of the flats are provided to people who have nothing to do with orphans or children deprived of parental care. And in some cases, the quality of the quite expensive housing is doubtful. For example, on the walls of a house bought for a family-type children’s home in Rozdolne village, Odesa region, huge cracks soon appeared and the family is simply scared to live there.
For 2018, the amount of subvention from the state budget for the purchase of houses for orphans and for family-type children’s homes, as well as the construction / full repairs / reconstruction of residential care homes and small group houses (the provision was approved only on October 3, 2018), is 517, 7 million UAH. However, the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine didn’t develop a clear mechanism for the use of this subvention. Yes, and its amount was incorrectly determined by chance. According to the Ministry of Social Policy, on January 1, 2018, the number of orphans and children deprived of parental care in need of housing in the whole Ukraine amounted to 27,397 people, although this number is doubtful – there was no analysis of the availability of organized queues for getting such housing. Could it be real that only one-third of orphans and children deprived of parental care haven’t got any housing?
There was also a substitution in the concepts of “social” (temporary) and “freehold” housing. However, according to the part, one of Article 33 of “the Law on the organization of social protection of orphans”, “orphans and children deprived of parental care, after reaching 18 years old during a month are provided with social housing to until they get a suitable dwelling for full-time residence”. That is, the provision of social housing does not exempt the state from the obligation to provide full-time housing for orphans and children deprived of parental care.
And a really clamorous situation – in 2018, for no good reason, children deprived of parental care, the largest category of social orphans, lost the right to get state housing. This led to discrimination based on social origin. If your parents died – get a house, and if they are deprived of parental rights by a court decision – you have no right for it.
All the same, for no good reason, an age restriction was imposed on the right to receive social housing – 18-23 years. That is, the state has not fulfilled its obligations for years, and when it finally happened, the child, who queued for half of his life, already turned 24 years old.
As a result of the audit check of the effectiveness of using subvention funds from the state budget by local ones for the purchase of housing and facilities for the development of family and other forms of parenting close to the family one, and the provision of housing for orphans and others, conducted by the Accounting Chamber in 9 regions (7 oblasts and in the cities of Kyiv and Cherkasy), at the request of People’s Deputy Yurii Pavlenko, it was found out that in terms of the timely allocation of budget payment orders for October 1, 2018, only 20% of the allocated 517.7 million UAH were spent all around Ukraine. At the same time, Zhytomyr Oblast and the city of Cherkasy have spent nothing at all. Zakarpattia Oblast – 80% (in 2017 – 66%).
The source: ac-rada.gov.ua
The ineffective use of state budget by local ones was caused by legal-regulatory negligence and inappropriate management of subvention funds by the Ministry of Social Policy and the activity of regional state administrations on these issues. The amount of the funds used in 2017-2018, 12.2 million UAH (16%) was used with the violation of fiscal legislation; 51.5 million UAH (68%) – in an ineffective way. In the actions of 14 officials there were signs of a crime, including corruption: the cost of housing significantly exceeds the average market prices; the taxes of the other party to a contract (housing seller) are paid by the subvention funds; except for housing, they paid for the purchase of land, etc. As a result, every fifth child who received housing did not move in, in particular, because of its unsuitability. For example, the Kolchyn Village Council of the Mukacheve rayon of the Zakarpattia Oblast bought a house for two orphans that was unfit for habitation for 588.8 thousand UAH – without electricity, gas, sewage system, etc.
The worst condition of the financial discipline, with regard to the use of subvention funds, was established in Dnipropetrovsk (the use of the subvention funds in the amount of 1.5 million UAH with the violations of the legislation and their ineffective use in the amount of 14 million UAH respectively), Kharkiv (1.4 million UAH and 7.9 million UAH ) and in Kyiv (8.9 million UAH and 6.4 million UAH respectively). In the Odesa region, ineffective use of funds was set at 8.4 million UAH and the signs of purchase of housing for an overcharged price were set at 3.9 million UAH.
The Accounting Chamber has sent the information about the facts of administrative dereliction that have signs of a crime to the Prosecutors General’s Office of Ukraine.
In the budget for 2019, the corresponding subvention provides for 200 million UAH more than it is this year. Thus, the independent accountants of the Accounting Chamber identified 6 key issues and risks, that require immediate regulation by the Ministry of Social Policy and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, as well as regional state administrations and Kyiv state administration:
– non-use of public procurement procedures (often the sellers of overpriced housing are high-ranking officials of a particular area);
– optionality of the opinion of value’s procedures;
– the absence of appliance of state building regulations on residential buildings purchased on the secondary market;
– inappropriate legal-regulatory support and management of the subvention funds from by the Ministry of Social Policy;
– restriction of the right to housing for children deprived of parental care;
– unreasonable age restriction of the right to housing (18-23 years).
Although on November 1, funds are used by 32.4%, it is already clear that at the end of the year at least half of the allocated amounts will be returned to the state budget. And this means that the resource from other state programs was taken away to no purpose. Meanwhile, the lack of housing is one of the most acute problems for orphans and children deprived of parental care that meet the adult life after residential institutions, foster families, family-type children’s homes, guardianship.
However, instead of resolving specific issues, on December 12, the Cabinet of Ministers made an unexpected decision: to create a State Social Service as a central executive body whose activities are directed and coordinated by the Cabinet through the Minister of Social Policy due to the reform of the Ministry of Social Policy. The State Social Service should implement state policy in the field of social protection of the population and the protection of children’s rights, as well as carry out state control during the provision of social support. The number of employees of the State Service is 120 people.
Within two-month, the Ministry of Social Policy must introduce a draft law on the State Service of Social Security to the Cabinet of Ministers. In addition, together with regional state administrations, they must conduct a functional review of the structural units on social protection of the population and children’s services in order to update the organizational structure by separating the structural units for the control functions of the State Service of Ukraine within three months.
The explanatory letter to the document states, that the creation of the State Service of Ukraine will make it possible to share the functions of forming the state policy in the area of social protection of the population that remains the Ministry of Social Policy’ s responsibility, and its implementation, which are relied on the newly created service. According to an agreement between Ukraine and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Ministry of Social Policy must establish an effective control over the use of the state budget funds in providing of social support. The agreement introduced that in the event of the establishment of a system of social inspection in the Ministry of Social Policy, the state budget will get USD 20 million.
“Another reform has been started, or finished”, an expert on children rights’ protection Liudmyla Volynets wrote on her Facebook page. “The decision is made almost secretly. There are no answers to the questions in the professional environment. Nobody knows anything. Neither functions, nor the head, nor local structures.
As for me, the reformers do not understand the sensitivity of the social sphere, its importance for Ukrainian society and Ukrainian families. And that’s why the steps are so careless.
Another reform without a concept and strategy (a favourite term of reformers). Oh, wait! I think there is both a concept and a strategy but for some reason, they do not tell it to society.
What is it being created half a year before the elections? A new wonder of social management or the liquidation of the existing? Who is going to do and what? To control it later? And the payments are not the heart of social policy! When the organizers and industry leaders will finally understand the law of social work: inspection and social work are incompatible functions in one social worker.”
As you can see, Ukrainian children shouldn’t rely on officials. Unlike St Nicholas, who will not let them down. It won’t be the keys of the house of their dreams, but he will put something pleasant under the pillow, no doubts.
Text by Hanna Drozd
