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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The firms of Yezhel-Lebedyev have launched an offensive against the Ministry of Finance. They demand increased spending on soldiers' meals.
The government is seeing intensified standoff between the defense and finance ministries.
Officials of the defense department claim that the Ministry of Finance is blocking increases in meals funding for soldiers, causing the "army to starve".
Defense officials and their partners are distributing copies of documents related to the daily cost of the standard military diet for one soldier.
Right now it stands at 17 UAH 63 kopecks.
In these documents it is stated that last autumn 2014 year the Ministry of Defense proposed to 1 December 2014 year to raise this standard to 30 UAH 18 kopecks.
Moreover, a draft government decision was approved by the former acting minister of economy Valeriy Pyatnytskyi.
However, the army officials claim that Finance Minister Nataliya Yaresko did not sign the draft increasing the norms.
Representatives of the Ministry of Defense argue that 17 UAH 63 kopecks is an inadequate price for daily feeding of a young man. It is less than a dollar at the current exchange rate.
Diana Petrenya, who joined the Defense Ministry via the volunteer corps, notes: "Right now it is impossible to feed a soldier for 17 UAH per day. Volunteer help in feeding the army remains acutely necessary."
According to the Defense Ministry, in 2015 year there are 189 156 individuals in the Armed Forces of Ukraine whom the Defense Ministry must feed.
According to the norms of 17 UAH per 2015 year, the budget will spend 1,217 billion UAH on food products without paying for catering services. If the norm of 30 UAH had been signed, the budget would have to allocate 2,08 billion UAH, the Defense Ministry says.
Support came from deputies. Two weeks ago the committee on national security and defense appealed to the Ministry of Finance for explanations on why soldiers’ belts are being tightened. Meanwhile, sarcastic clips about meat in 1968 year appeared online. The state leadership and Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak face criticism.
In this video, the contractors feeding the army openly economize on the quality of food to fit within the Cabinet’s approved framework. As a result, almost 200 thousand soldiers are undernourished—supposedly due to the Finance Ministry.
Finance Ministry and intermediaries
In reality, no one is feeding soldiers according to the 17,63-UAH norm. The cost of feeding is formed based on contracts concluded with companies that win the Defense Ministry’s tenders. These final sums are included in the state budget. According to a cabinet insider, this was also the case in 2014 year when the budget-2015 was formed.
"Then the Finance Ministry accounted for all Defense Ministry whims. It approved what it asked for. They budgeted 1,6 billion UAH for meals. Apparently, the military were mistaken and are now trying to correct this by exploiting a sacred issue," says the source.
According to him, in 2015 year the Defense Ministry’s budget was increased by 14 billion UAH. "They did not have any reductions in any expenditure. They asked for 1,6 billion UAH and received 1,6 billion UAH. There was no talk of norms," claims the EP source.
Now, the source says, the military want additional funds. They will go to private feeding structures. Moreover, these expenditures would not come from general military budget lines but from the reserve fund created for urgent unforeseen situations.
Interestingly, according to the Cabinet, the required increase should be not 400 million UAH, as the military claim, but 1,2 billion UAH strictly for the Defense Ministry. This is the core stubbornness of Finance Ministry officials.
This helps explain much. Indeed, if the cost of feeding soldiers is determined by contracts rather than by norms, then why demand an increase in the norms specifically? An answer from a cabinet insider.
Photo mil.gov.ua
"Often contracts are linked to norms. Their revision will lead to an automatic increase in the contract sum for the private entity," he explains.
There is another consequence of the Defense Ministry’s sought decision. The revision will not only raise military costs. They would demand higher norms from prisons, the National Guard, and other structures. This would require billions more to be allocated not from the reserve fund. In other words, it creates a problem for revising the budget-2015.
As EP reported, the Defense Ministry continued cooperation with organizations feeding soldiers from the companies LLC Aviika, LLC Admet-Group, LLC Ukroductord-OR, and PP Artek-Soyuz. They began feeding the army back in Viktor Yanukovych’s era.
It became clear that the Defense Ministry’s inaction allowed Yezhel-Lebedyev firms to win again contracts for army provisioning. By the way, in March 2015 year the agency stated there were no claims against these companies.
Two months passed, and the Defense Ministry began lobbying to raise food costs for soldiers. In the end, this would increase profits for those firms but would not guarantee that the army would be better fed than now.
The price tag
It is easy to notice a huge confusion with numbers. The norm of 17 UAH is only an argument in negotiations. How much money actually goes to feeding a soldier? Judging by not-quite-old infographics, the cost of feeding one soldier per day is 38 UAH. What they buy with it must be carefully examined.
Click to enlarge
Meanwhile, another idea appeared inside the Defense Ministry. Given new utility tariffs and fuel prices, 38,5 UAH is also not adequate. The agency proposed to the Finance Ministry to raise the figure to 58 UAH funded from the state budget reserve. Of course, the Finance Ministry again refused.
The military complain that the finance minister is saving during the war with the aggressor.
Finance Ministry does not comment. The author requested clarification, but Deputy Minister Ihor Umansky said providing a comment is a right, not an obligation of civil servants.
Later, the Finance Ministry’s press service said another deputy minister, Roman Kachur, would comment. However, the latter did not respond.
In contrast, the Defense Ministry explained why it still has not shed the four-firm monopoly. Private companies apparently do not want to participate in tenders. It is, they say, too complicated.
It seems the Defense Ministry does not want to change anything. Therefore, the Finance Ministry has full right not to trust Poltorak’s subordinates who slow down the reform of the army’s feeding and award contracts to the favorites of Yezhel-Lebedyev.
This matter is not about 17 hryvnias.
Glyb Kanevsky, expert at the Center for Political Studies and Analysis
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Фірми Єжеля-Лебедєва пішли в наступ на Мінфін. Вимагають збільшення видатків на харчування солдатів". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
