In recent days, the Ukrainian political scene has been rocked by a scandal related to the financial reports of the political party "Holos", which is known for its active participation in parliamentary life and reforms in Ukraine. This time, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) has revealed serious shortcomings in the party's financial reporting, which resulted in the suspension of its funding.
Yesterday, the National Anti-Corruption Commission announced that it was suspending funding for the political party "Holos" because the political party's financial reports contained inaccurate information worth millions of hryvnias. The editorial team investigated who the funds were transferred to and how the counterparty of "Holos" could be connected to the party's own deputies.
"For two quarters of 2020, the political party "Holos" submitted inaccurate information to the report for a total amount of 4 million 726 thousand 500 UAH. This is grounds for terminating state funding of the party's statutory activities," the NACP said.
They clarified that in the third quarter of 2020, the Holos party signed service contracts with Maintis LLC for UAH 1 million. Among such services were:
- oral consultations and explanations on practical aspects of the application of the Electoral Code;
- oral legal advice on election process issues;
- checking the correctness of the documents filled out for observers at the next local elections, etc.
But, as the agency noted, the aforementioned company did not provide these services to the party. This is confirmed by materials received from the State Bureau of Investigation and the State Tax Service.
In the party's report for the fourth quarter of 2020, the NACP revealed similar violations amounting to UAH 1 million. In addition, the Kyiv City Territorial Organization of Holos also had a contract with Maintis LLC for over UAH 2,452,500.
The NACP has already sent all data on the identified violations to the State Bureau of Investigation.
Meanwhile, the company "Maintis", which received almost 5 million UAH from the Ukrainian budget, turned out to be an agricultural company. According to the Open Data portal, its main activity is "wholesale grain trade.".
Maintis LLC is owned by two individuals: Ivan Yurievich Gaidaenko and Konstantin Viktorovich Tsymbal.
In addition, another agricultural enterprise is registered under the name of Konstantin Viktorovych Tsymbal - LLC "AGRICULTURAL COMPANY "GRAIN TRADITIONS".
Against the background of the agricultural profile of Holos' counterpart, some legislative initiatives by the party's deputies themselves now seem no coincidence.
In particular, the head of the Holos faction, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, was repeatedly called a lobbyist for the interests of certain players in the agricultural market in the media.
Zheleznyak began to take care of the agricultural issue from the moment he was elected as a deputy. He was one of the main supporters of opening the land market and constantly cooperated closely with the association "Ukrainian Club of Agrarian Business" (UCAB). The latter unites the largest private agricultural holdings in the country and defends the interests of their owners.
An analysis of Zheleznyak's legislative initiatives also confirms the presence of signs of selective agrarian lobbying in his actions.
In particular, Zheleznyak is one of the authors of the draft law No. 9266 "On electronic agricultural receipts", which expands the circle of creditors capable of financing agriculture. The adoption of this document was actively lobbied by the representative of the Ukrainian Agricultural Bank Alex Lissitsa.
In October 2023, Zheleznyak registered bill No. 10169 on combating gray grain exports, which was recently adopted. And the emergence of this document was also lobbied by some agricultural businessmen.
In addition, Zheleznyak is the head of the temporary parliamentary commission, the only one in the Verkhovna Rada dealing with the issues of "grain export.".
Accordingly, the appearance in the NACP reports of the agricultural company to which Holos wrote off almost 5 million state hryvnias is hardly a coincidence.
