“The Kyiv police opened three criminal proceedings regarding the possible embezzlement of state funds within the framework of the “Book for Strengthening National Unity” program, which is implemented by the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy. According to an investigation by the publication NGL.media, in 2022-2023 the Ministry of Culture spent more than 24 million hryvnias on printing books within the framework of this program, but most of the publications remained”, — write on: ua.news
The Kyiv police opened three criminal proceedings regarding the possible embezzlement of state funds within the framework of the “Book for Strengthening National Unity” program, which is implemented by the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy.
According to the publication’s investigation NGL.media in 2022-2023, the Ministry of Culture spent more than 24 million hryvnias on printing books within the framework of this program, but most of the publications remained in warehouses or did not reach distribution.
One of the main contractors turned out to be the publishing house “Samit-Knyga”, which, according to journalists, could have acted in collusion with representatives of the Ministry of Culture. Law enforcement officers have already searched the office of the state-owned enterprise “Center for the Protection of the Information Space of Ukraine” (TZIP), subordinate to the ministry, through which contracts were concluded without open tenders.
The police are investigating the contracts between TZIP and the publishing house “Samit-Knyga”, as well as the companies associated with it – “Osnova-Print Plus”, “Creative agency “Artil”” and private entrepreneur Ivan Rotarchuk.
In total, TZIP concluded 59 agreements worth UAH 24.2 million, of which UAH 17 million were received by only two publishing houses — “Samit-Knyga” and Kharkiv “Folio”.
Most other Ukrainian publishing houses, in particular “Our Format” and Vivat stated that they did not know about the existence of the state program at all.
The “Book for Strengthening National Unity” program has been in effect since the fall of 2022 and is financed through the Ministry of Culture. Its purpose was declared to publish books that contribute to the formation of a common Ukrainian identity, but now it has become the subject of a criminal investigation.
We will remind, the SBI suspects the ex-head of the Ministry of Defense department of losses of UAH 322 million.
The SBI also referred to the court the case of a deputy who, for money, removed evaders from the register.