What Member of Parliament Demchak Needed from Masha Yefrosinina’s Husband

What Member of Parliament Demchak Needed from Masha Yefrosinina’s Husband

A parliamentary inquiry is a unique mechanism that every MP receives along with their mandate to help ensure citizens’ rights and establish justice. However, not everyone uses it as intended. Some servants of the people trade on their parliamentary authority to lobby someone’s business or property interests. The recent scandal involving “radical” Ihor Mosiychuk showed that a parliamentary inquiry can indeed be bought and sold and can be used as a means of manipulation and pressure.

There are 16 MPs in the Verkhovna Rada who come from the Vinnytsia region. To see what issues of constituents they addressed during their year in office, you can review their inquiries on the Verkhovna Rada website. Depo.Vinnytsia offers readers a light version — a brief tour of the inquiries of the parliamentarians from Vinnytsia.

The absolute leader in number of parliamentary inquiries is MP Oleksandr Dombrovskyi. He has as many as 93. Admittedly, the MP usually duplicates each inquiry to several recipients at once. For example, Dombrovskyi’s inquiry about paying back wages to Vinnytsia resident Oleksandr Vityuk is addressed simultaneously to eight officials: the director of the “Vinnytsia Aviation Plant,” the head of the regional justice administration, the head of the regional police department, the regional prosecutor, as well as Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, and even Prosecutor General Shokin.

A significant portion of the parliamentarian’s inquiries concern everyday problems of citizens. In particular, MP Dombrovskyi advocates for issuing employment record books, returning a bank deposit and an underpaid pension supplement, restructuring a loan, granting veteran-of-combatant status, and taking under his control the establishment of the whereabouts of an ATO soldier who disappeared, among other things.

The MP also appealed to Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk asking to fund from the state budget the celebration of the 100-anniversary of the regional Pirogov Hospital and to purchase medical equipment for the new surgical complex for 200 million UAH.

Dombrovskyi also cares that Ukraine not lose its voting rights in the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), and is concerned about popularization of a type of non-smoking tobacco product with the addition of lime and chicken droppings called “Nasvay.” The parliamentarian is seriously worried about the accessibility of this mash-up and therefore proposes to include it in the list of narcotic substances.

So far 80 of Dombrovskyi’s inquiries have been considered.

MP Ruslan Demchak produced 24 inquiries over the year, 18 of which were sent to the heads of ministries and agencies of Ukraine. He began his term with appeals regarding repayment of creditor debt for road repairs, establishing a “green” tariff for electricity, and reclamation of a landfill unusable for waste disposal in Nemyriv.

Then the MP somewhat changed the profile of his appeals — he defended a Vinnytsia agricultural enterprise that, according to local SBU officers, could pose a threat to Ukraine’s state security in the economic sphere, and later began promoting retransmission of the UA.TV channel into the media space of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Demchak asked Information Minister Yuriy Stets to finance the channel’s entry into Kazakhstan’s cable networks. He asked twice, in two separate inquiries.

The Vinnytsia MP also appealed to Stets and later to Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, then head of the SBU, regarding checks of the owners of all Ukrainian internet sites in order to identify “black resources” and subsequently shut them down. To make the SBU’s job easier, the parliamentarian even added a tentative list of resources to his inquiry that, in his opinion, had “turned black” and should be “disqualified.”

Demchak also petitioned against the liquidation of PJSC “State Land Bank.” According to the MP, the financial institution could interest potential investors, so he proposed that the Cabinet put the bank’s shares up for privatization after transferring them from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy to the State Property Fund.

And Ruslan Demchak wrote an inquiry to the husband of TV host Masha Yefrosinina, Tymur Khromaiev, who heads the National Securities and Stock Market Commission. Demchak suggested that Khromaiev introduce legislative changes regarding requirements for the assets of collective investment institutions.

Of 24 parliamentary inquiries by Ruslan Demchak, 20 have so far been considered.

MP Hryhoriy Zabolotnyi was not very active as an “inquiry writer.” He has only five inquiries to his name. Zabolotnyi appealed to Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, and also to two high-ranking women — Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko and NBU Chair Valeriya Hontareva.

Both inquiries addressed to the prime minister were “group” inquiries — Zabolotnyi developed them together with other MPs. But his appeal to Yaresko was a personal initiative — he asked for funds for preferential lending for individual housing construction in rural areas, as well as for road repairs.

Zabolotnyi had a personnel matter for Hontareva. In February this year he asked the NBU chair to replace the head of the temporary administration of PJSC Energobank.

Currently only one of Zabolotnyi’s inquiries is under consideration.

Sergiy Kudlayenko has 11 inquiries. However, eight of them are the same inquiry sent to different authorized officials and were written collectively. It concerns what the authors of the appeal consider the wrongful arrest of an employee of the Department for Combating Illegal Drug Trafficking of Odesa region, who allegedly agreed to cover a local drug dealer for a reward of 15 thousand dollars.

Harsh treatment of the Odesa law enforcement officer during his arrest, as well as subsequent ambiguous actions by prosecutors and judges, so alarmed three MPs, including Kudlayenko, that they rushed to circulate their inquiries to the heads of Verkhovna Rada committees Valeriya Lutkovska, Andriy Kozhemyakin, Yehor Soboliev, Hryhoriy Nemyria, to the ministers of interior and justice Avakov and Petrenko, to the head of the High Qualification Commission of Judges Koziakov, and to Prosecutor General Shokin.

In addition, at the very beginning of the term Kudlayenko defended a Sumy businesswoman who had problems with law enforcement and officials. The Vinnytsia MP also signed a group inquiry regarding funds for road repairs obtained under state guarantees by the State Agency of Automobile Roads.

Of the eleven inquiries by the parliamentarian, eight have currently been considered.

People’s Deputy Mykola Kucher wrote 12 inquiries, half of which were directed to ministers and heads of agencies. The MP asked six ministers to provide information about the number of their subordinates who were wounded in the ATO zone and traveled abroad for treatment at the host country’s expense.

Kucher also doubted the actions of law enforcement in Trostianets district and asked the Vinnytsia regional prosecutor to investigate the legality of his subordinates’ actions.

In addition, the MP appealed to the Cabinet asking to fund repairs of the highway “Mohyliv-Podilskyi – Yampil – Bershad – Uman,” which, in the MP’s opinion, is in an extremely dreadful condition.

At present one of the MP’s inquiries remains unconsidered.

Yuriy Makedon has six inquiries. Three of them are to the Cabinet, and three to the heads of ministries and agencies. All inquiries to Prime Minister Yatsenyuk and one to Finance Minister Yaresko were developed as part of various deputy groups.

Makedon personally sought verification of documents from the Czech company SKODA JS a.s., which supplies equipment for the Khmelnytskyi NPP. He also wanted reliable information on the citizenship of Mohyliv-Podilskyi Mayor Petro Brovko, who, according to media reports, in addition to Ukrainian citizenship also holds a Moldovan passport.

Of the six inquiries by the parliamentarian, two remain under consideration.

People’s Deputy Anatoliy Matviyenko did not make friends with inquiries during the year. In this, far from his first, term Matviyenko sent only two inquiries — to Prime Minister Yatsenyuk and to Health Minister Davit Kvitashvili. Both were developed by a group of deputies, and the Vinnytsia MP supported them.

Currently half of Matviyenko’s submitted inquiries have been considered — that is, one.

Matviyenko’s company includes another “two-pointer” — Andriy Teteruk, who also managed only two inquiries. Both were developed collectively. Apparently, Teteruk’s constituents have no problems, although perhaps the MP solves them by other means.

The situation is similar for the head of the inter-factional deputy group “Vinnychchyna,” Hennadiy Tkachuk. However, he already has four inquiries to his name, and only one was initiated personally by the deputy. Tkachuk complained to Prosecutor General Shokin about the impunity of the organizers and participants of the Vinnytsia Antimaidan, including law enforcement officers.

Currently Tkachuk has one inquiry pending consideration.

By contrast with the last trio of MPs, real “A-student” of inquiry-writing in the Verkhovna Rada appears to be the majoritarian Ivan Melnychuk. He is the author of 45 parliamentary inquiries in which he asks for repayment of back wages to employees of one medical institution, compensation payments to Chernobyl victims, provision of medicines to hemophilia patients, compliance with conditions for sale of state property, and giving citizens who receive the minimum wage and pension the opportunity to obtain a loan to implement energy-efficiency measures.

From Melnychuk’s inquiries it is notable that he is not indifferent to the family of former Party of Regions members Kaletnyks. This spring the parliamentarian asked the Prosecutor General to conduct a special investigation into the activities of former Vice Speaker Ihor Kaletnik. And already in October Melnychuk appealed to the Ministry of Education asking to take from Vinnytsia National Agrarian University, which is still de facto run by former MP Hryhoriy Kaletnik, 428 hectares of arable land and return them to the ownership of the community of the village of Petryk in Lityn district.

The parliamentarian also appealed to Interior Minister Avakov to help evict from a service apartment the former head of the Lityn district administration, who has been dismissed from office for 2 years and refuses to return the state housing.

Besides problems arising in Melnychuk’s constituency, he began to take an interest in the Kyiv metro and Boryspil Airport. In particular, he demands installation of surveillance cameras in the capital’s subway and also wants to take personal control over conducting the competitive selection and appointment of the general director of the country’s largest airport.

So far 36 of the MP’s inquiries have been considered.

President’s son Oleksiy Poroshenko filed five parliamentary inquiries over the year. In the summer he appealed to Prosecutor General Shokin and Interior Minister Avakov regarding the “deriban” (racketeering) of land in the village of Voronovytsia near Vinnytsia. Poroshenko Jr. was also one of the co-submitters of an inquiry to Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko regarding allocation of funds for major road repairs.

In addition, the MP appealed to the Cabinet with a proposal not to skimp on state funds for the treatment and rehabilitation abroad of military personnel wounded in the ATO.

So far three of Oleksiy Poroshenko’s inquiries have been considered.

MP Ivan Sporish’s inquiries concern life in his electoral district. In particular, he is concerned about the critical situation at the Kyrnasiv Sugar Factory, advocates for completion of construction of Zvedenivka School and a gas pipeline in several villages of Shargorod district, and is involved in opening a youth sports school in the district center.

In addition, the MP is concerned with stabilizing pricing policy on the milk market and asks the Anti-Monopoly Committee to raise its purchase price. Sporish also supported appeals by deputies of the Tomashpil district council to the government to review housing and utilities tariffs.

Of 15 inquiries by MP Ivan Sporish, 12 have been considered.

Vinnytsia native Dmytro Storozhuk has eight inquiries to his name. He complained to Health Minister Kvitashvili about the absence of an elevator at the Vinnytsia Central District Hospital and inadequate medical service conditions at the private clinic “Medivin.” The MP is also concerned about an emergency dormitory building of a vocational school in Mala Vyska, Kirovohrad region, and helps the head of the State Financial Inspection in Khmelnytskyi region to be reinstated. Together with other MPs Storozhuk initiated checks of scandalous Kyiv developers.

All eight of the MP’s inquiries have been considered.

Majoritarian MP Mykola Yurchyshyn did not devote much attention to writing inquiries. He has only four. In addition to three standard “group” inquiries for Vinnytsia MPs, Yurchyshyn appealed to the Prosecutor General’s Office to prevent delay of pretrial investigation in a criminal proceeding against a resident of Khmilnyk district.

Only one inquiry remains under consideration.

Depo