“
Among the books ordered under the program, in particular, the English translation of “Azovstal. The Steel Press Service” by Valeria “Nava” SubotinaThis was reported by the investigators of NGL.media.
In 2022-2023, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy spent more than UAH 24 million on books under the “Book for Strengthening National Unity” program. However, most of the books financed in this way lie in warehouses or have other problems with distribution.
One of the main contractors is the publishing house “Samit-knyga”. As the journalists emphasize, violations on the part of the publishing house were discovered “would not have been possible without collusion with representatives of the Ministry of Culture“.
Law enforcement officers searched the office of the state-owned enterprise “Center for the Protection of Information Space” (CZIP), which is subordinate to the Ministry of Culture. The books for participation in the program were allegedly selected through art competitions, and TZIP entered into agreements with publishing houses without announcing open tenders.
“Currently, the police are investigating agreements with the publishing house “Samit-knyga” and private entrepreneurs connected with this publishing house. It is about LLC “Osnova-Print Plus”, “Creative agency “Artil” and private entrepreneur Ivan Rotarchuk“, the investigators emphasize.
The “Book for Strengthening National Unity” program is implemented by the SE “Center for the Protection of the Information Space”, subordinate to the Ministry of Culture, from the fall of 2022. The books for participation in this project were formally selected through art competitions, and the CZIP entered into agreements with publishing houses without announcing open tenders.
About the investigation The Ministry of Culture announced the launch of the “Book for Strengthening National Unity” program in September 2022. Having the Book Institute in its department, the ministry entrusted the implementation of this program to another state enterprise – the “Center for the Protection of the Information Space of Ukraine”. The main type of activity of this SE is “research of the market situation and identification of public opinion”.
In November 2022, the competition committee chose 18 bookswhich were issued by the state. The function of distribution of state-financed books is also entrusted to the SE.
In the next year, 2023, within the scope of the project, it was already issued 41 books: some of the winners were chosen in August, the other in December. All agreements were concluded at the end of the year, with immediate payment. Some of the books were presented after printing, others were either not presented at all or were presented late.
In total, TZIP concluded in two years 59 agreements with publishing houses for the total amount UAH 24.2 million. In 2024, new agreements have not yet been concluded, only open tenders were held for the printing of an additional edition of the books “Racism is…” and “Genocide”. Won in both procurements LLC “Samit-Knyga”concluded agreements with him for almost UAH 630,000.
According to the investigation, the Kyiv “Samit-Knyga” is one of the two publishing houses that received the most state funds under the “Book for Strengthening National Unity” program. It received directly UAH 5.3 millionmore UAH 5.5 million – publishers associated with “Samit-Knyga”. So, in general, this publishing house published on the order of the Ministry of Culture 26 books for the total amount of UAH 10.8 million.
Another favorite of the program is “Folio” from Kharkiv. It received 19 orders for the total amount of UAH 6.2 million.
Thus, 45 books out of 59 ordered were published by two publishing houses. For this, 17 million UAH were paid out of the 24.2 million UAH allocated by the program. The rest of the amount was divided among ten more companies.
NGL.media interviewed other major publishers about participating in this program. Many of them replied to the publication that they had not heard about the “Book for Strengthening National Unity” program. “I haven’t heard about this program, maybe I missed it. Usually, we receive newsletters from specialized organizations about various opportunities for publishers“, said Anastasia Nikitina, executive director of the publishing house “Nash Format”.
“We have enough publications that could probably take part in this program, we just didn’t know about it – this is the first time I’ve heard of it“, Yuliya Orlova, director of the Vivat publishing house, answered in a similar manner.
”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Among the books ordered under the program, in particular, the English translation of “Azovstal. The Steel Press Service” by Valeria “Nava” SubotinaThis was reported by the investigators of NGL.media.
In 2022-2023, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy spent more than UAH 24 million on books under the “Book for Strengthening National Unity” program. However, most of the books financed in this way lie in warehouses or have other problems with distribution.
One of the main contractors is the publishing house “Samit-knyga”. As the journalists emphasize, violations on the part of the publishing house were discovered “would not have been possible without collusion with representatives of the Ministry of Culture“.
Law enforcement officers searched the office of the state-owned enterprise “Center for the Protection of Information Space” (CZIP), which is subordinate to the Ministry of Culture. The books for participation in the program were allegedly selected through art competitions, and TZIP entered into agreements with publishing houses without announcing open tenders.
“Currently, the police are investigating agreements with the publishing house “Samit-knyga” and private entrepreneurs connected with this publishing house. It is about LLC “Osnova-Print Plus”, “Creative agency “Artil” and private entrepreneur Ivan Rotarchuk“, the investigators emphasize.
The “Book for Strengthening National Unity” program is implemented by the SE “Center for the Protection of the Information Space”, subordinate to the Ministry of Culture, from the fall of 2022. The books for participation in this project were formally selected through art competitions, and the CZIP entered into agreements with publishing houses without announcing open tenders.
About the investigation The Ministry of Culture announced the launch of the “Book for Strengthening National Unity” program in September 2022. Having the Book Institute in its department, the ministry entrusted the implementation of this program to another state enterprise – the “Center for the Protection of the Information Space of Ukraine”. The main type of activity of this SE is “research of the market situation and identification of public opinion”.
In November 2022, the competition committee chose 18 bookswhich were issued by the state. The function of distribution of state-financed books is also entrusted to the SE.
In the next year 2023, within the framework of the project, 41 books: some of the winners were chosen in August, the other in December. All agreements were concluded at the end of the year, with immediate payment. Some of the books were presented after printing, others were either not presented at all or were presented late.
In total, TZIP concluded in two years 59 agreements with publishing houses for the total amount UAH 24.2 million. In 2024, new agreements have not yet been concluded, only open tenders were held for the printing of an additional edition of the books “Racism is…” and “Genocide”. Won in both procurements LLC “Samit-Knyga”concluded agreements with him for almost UAH 630,000.
According to the investigation, the Kyiv “Samit-Knyga” is one of the two publishing houses that received the most state funds under the “Book for Strengthening National Unity” program. It received directly UAH 5.3 millionmore UAH 5.5 million – publishers associated with “Samit-Knyga”. So, in general, this publishing house published on the order of the Ministry of Culture 26 books for the total amount of UAH 10.8 million.
Another favorite of the program is “Folio” from Kharkiv. It received 19 orders for the total amount of UAH 6.2 million.
Thus, 45 books out of 59 ordered were published by two publishing houses. For this, 17 million UAH were paid out of the 24.2 million UAH allocated by the program. The rest of the amount was divided among ten more companies.
NGL.media interviewed other major publishers about participating in this program. Many of them replied to the publication that they had not heard about the “Book for Strengthening National Unity” program. “I haven’t heard about this program, maybe I missed it. Usually, we receive newsletters from specialized organizations about various opportunities for publishers“, said Anastasia Nikitina, executive director of the publishing house “Nash Format”.
“We have enough publications that could probably take part in this program, we just didn’t know about it – this is the first time I’ve heard of it“, Yuliya Orlova, director of the Vivat publishing house, answered in a similar manner.