Big reconstruction means big money. The lobbyists of the scandalous urban planning "reform" 5655, which carries corruption risks, are not going to back down. At the level of some political figures, a massive campaign to misinform international donors is currently underway, which not only hinders reforms in the country but also carries the risk of biased decisions by partners. Moreover, this campaign involves high-ranking officials engaged in the reconstruction of the war-torn state.
Public consultations on the "Effective and Transparent Recovery Policy" are currently underway. Donors support the transparency of this process.
The draft law "On the Principles of Restoration of Ukraine" is being discussed and is being led by Olena Shulyak, a key lobbyist for the 5655 urban planning "reform," the head of the Servant of the People party and head of the relevant committee.
This legislative initiative under discussion is a testament to the "monster ministry." It appeared after the resignation of former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov. As the analysis of the Holka civic initiative has shown, it does not address corruption risks during reconstruction.
What is the purpose of this project?
As a matter of fact, this project is a continuation of the policy of the old team of the ministry, which has been lobbying for the scandalous urban planning reform (5655), which benefits developers, throughout its entire term. The lobbyists decided to bypass the president, who emphasized that he would not sign this initiative on purpose, and go through the Cabinet of Ministers. This is how the government resolution clone of Law 5655 appeared, which they tried to push through by voice and which received negative conclusions from the NAPC. And now there is a new draft law "On the Principles of Restoration" — another attempt to push in by the same lobbyists, only from a different entrance.
If we recall the preparation of the urban planning "reform" for the second reading, we cannot but mention the transcripts of the meetings of the relevant committee, which no one can find officially. They are not available on the website of the Verkhovna Rada. That's what "publicity" and "transparency" are when it comes to big money. And this is, by the way, the taxpayers' money of our international partners. Those members of the public who decided to block corruption schemes and did not keep silent could not attend the committee meetings.
Now lobbyists have become more cunning, holding discussions on a new initiative under the auspices of donors, creating the perception that the opinions of participants will be heard and taken into account. Lobbyists expect that this will make it easier to get the rules they want passed.
Shuliak and Kubrakov understand perfectly well how to work with partners since they both come from the public sector — the BRDO (Better Regulation Delivery Office). By the way, the BRDO quite predictably supported 5655.
Part of the BRDO schedule in support of urban planning "reform" 5655, which contains corruption risks
It should be reminded here that the BRDO was created by former Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk, and it was under the BRDO quota that Shuliak and Kubrakov, among others, were included in the 2019 election list of the Servants of the People. This is how they became MPs.
After the outbreak of full-scale war, civil society organizations created the RISE Ukraine coalition. The lobbyists had thought through everything to the smallest detail.
When they started lobbying for what, by all likelihood, could be a cartel conspiracy in the interests of large developers, the BRDO, which was part of the leadership of this coalition, supported 5655. Given that there was no unity of position, the coalition, which was created for transparent rules of reconstruction, did not issue a general statement that the project contained serious corruption risks. This is how the association of NGOs RISE Ukraine, which assumed responsibility to society and international partners during the war to ensure transparent rules for reconstruction, was unable to make a collective statement. There was a real threat of corruption schemes, and the implementation of such rules would have undermined the partners' trust in the state.
Therefore, this "reform" had to be stopped at the level of the European Parliament and the European Commission. Here, the Association of Ukrainian Cities and the community of architects played an important role in advocacy. However, the state de facto ran into reputational risks because internal checkpoints at the level of parliament, government, and the public sector failed.
Currently, the BRDO is developing a number of policies and cooperating with the government, including cooperation on the Reserve+ app. Given that MPs could not find out who had developed the app, some questions arose.
Our Western partners should understand that there is a wing in the public sector that does not strengthen the government but works for the private interest of those who are in government at this historic moment and, having power, lobby not for the public interest.
To understand how lobbyists behave in the government, it is just enough to look at the website pro5655.gov.ua, which was created on the government domain. It is still active. This is a unique case in the history of the state when a separate website was created for a bill that was not signed by the president.
Screenshot of pro5655.gov.ua website
This is how the formation of the information field in various areas works, and all the risks identified by the public sector and the media have been included in the section "Myths about 5655". This is all you need to know about the value of engagement and public consultations. Expertise turns into a myth at the official level when it stands in the way of something that has all the hallmarks of a cartel.
But all these efforts regarding 5655 were in vain because the European Parliament and the European Commission finally spoke up and saw the risks of the urban planning "reform".
With this in mind, lobbyists decided to first go over the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who did not sign 5655, and push the clone resolutions through the government. The first attempt was made on December 13, 2023, when Zelenskyy left the country. It is symbolic that on this day it was exactly one year since the Verkhovna Rada adopted the draft in the second reading. Sources in the parliament knew that they would try to push the resolution on the anniversary of the bill's adoption in early fall.
Nevertheless, after the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia newspaper publicly reported on this intention, it failed. Several more unsuccessful attempts followed. And now, after Kubrakov's dismissal, a new initiative "On the Principles of Ukraine's Restoration" appears. Experts are now involved in the Zoom circles and given the right to speak.
What is going on behind the scenes?
Behind the scenes, where donors and the media are not present, the following is being said.
Olena Shulyak, the head of the ruling Servant of the People party, is interested in those who think differently, devaluing their expertise, while mentioning donors.
One of the participants in the discussion during the Zoom circles was Anatoliy Tkachuk. He is the head of the Civil Society Institute, a well-known expert, one of the fathers and the ideologists of decentralization in Ukraine, and the author of dozens of articles for the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, which is an analytical periodical. He is currently formulating the foundations of regional policy, which has not been done by the Ministry in the last 5 years.
Let me remind you that the Institute stated pressure from the Ministry of Reconstruction. The pressure came when Kubrakov was in the government. The Institute emphasized that one of their projects had lost funding from Hoverla (USAID) due to political pressure. A similar story arose with a working group in the parliament that is working on developing an urban planning code. MP Hanna Bondar (Servant of the People) said that Kubrakov personally appealed to the US ambassador to stop funding the development of alternative 5655. The loss of funding in both cases is the result of systematic misinformation of partners by lobbyists.
Thus, during the discussion, which should be about coordinated work and analysis of WHAT was said at the public consultations, and not about discussing the personalities of the participants, Shulyak asks:
"Who had Tkachuk?" and the MP immediately gives her verdict: "Muddying the waters... Was he behaving badly?"
It is noteworthy that Shuliak was told in the working chat that Tkachuk was not the only one who had such a position, and this should be taken into account:
"Colleagues, regarding Anatoliy (Tkachuk — author's note). I see that he is not the only one who has this opinion. It would be good to work through his question to respond. Maybe we should include him in the discussion?" wrote one of the participants.
Excerpts from Shulyak's correspondence in a working chat about the draft "On the Principles of Ukraine's Recovery." This information was obtained by Holka from a person close to Shulyak
And then Shulyak wrote this in the work chat:
"This is their job (referring to Tkachuk and the one who also supported his position during the discussion). He was cut off from funding by USAID for unethical behavior. That's why he behaves this way. He called the team of the Ministry of Reconstruction slide jerk-offs. I am sorry. Publicly."
The donors will, of course, be shown beautiful presentation slides of how the discussion went, and they will use words like: "engagement", ‘democracy’, etc. On the website of the Servants of the People, you can already read Olena Shulyak's direct speech that "every suggestion you make, every opinion you have will be very important..."
Source: official website of "Servant of the People"
The question here is whether the risks emphasized by experts, including those described by the Holka civic initiative and the Institute for Civil Society, will be taken into account in reality.
Oleksandra Azarkhina, Kubrakov's former deputy at the ministry, is also a participant in the discussion of the draft law. She, of course, shares the same level of values and principles as the entire Shuliak team that was pushing for 5655, and now she is lobbying for the same rules, just in a different way.
It is clear that now lobbyists are making beautiful slides and trying to create an identity around them as "watchdogs of restoration." They even share advice for the media, which stops lobbyists of big developers' interests.
A screenshot from a post on Tkachuk's Facebook page
It appears that those who lobby for non-transparent rules of the game that favor large developers want to perform the monitoring function. Oleh Levchenko, whose Facebook page states that he works for USAID Economic Resilience Activity, commented on all this quite thoroughly.
Screenshot from Facebook, commentary by Oleh Levchenko
Levchenko mentions Avtodor in his commentary for a reason. Azarkhina, while working as the director of the Reform Support Team at Ukravtodor, was involved in the organization and implementation of E-Road systems.
It seems that Shuliak, Azarkhina, and Kubrakov decided that they could continue to spread fakes about those who oppose what looks like a cartel conspiracy and misinform donors and ambassadors to continue to do their own thing.
In particular, they are taking advantage of the fact that a year ago, the G-7 ambassadors were rotated. The previous ambassadors had several years of experience before the full-scale invasion, knew the public sector and the media community, and communicated with representatives of local governments. Rotation is quite natural in the diplomatic sector. But in times of war, it did not go the way it usually does in peacetime.
In a time of war, the doors are first and foremost open to representatives of the central government, including government officials and the head of the Servant of the People party. This is quite natural, but there is a big drawback. Those who came do not fully realize that the head of the ruling party may not be a strong figure in the political system and is kept at the head of the brand not because she is a good party manager or leader, but because the president will not need the Servant of the People brand after the victory. And no one else needed to be the head of the party. That is why Shulyak was quietly re-elected to this position at the end of last year. And Bankova has been preparing a new project for a long time. Therefore, Shuliak is just the head of the Servant of the People party. There was no party building and there is no party building.
Everything that is of public interest and that is being hidden will sooner or later become public. And all the names of those who participated in this priceless lobbying of the cartel's interests during the war will be known.
And when people abroad ask you: "How do you fight corruption in Ukraine, where do our taxes go," you should tell them this story. It is very illustrative. That is why we translated this text into English.
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