And demands from the Cabinet of Ministers to “disengage” from the communities regarding military purchases.
According to Dnipro Mayor Boris Filatov, the premier Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal quite seriously believes that local self-government bodies will finance their brigades with money from the community budget, that is, they will bribe the loyalty of the military. “What are they doing? Better protect our people from bombs?”, the mayor asks in an interview with Inna Vedernikova for ZN.UAand voices the main purpose of his criticism of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet.
“For the Cabinet of Ministers to disengage from municipalities on all issues related to military procurement. With Prozorro, with currency control, double taxation, with prepayment. So, is it possible to somehow solve all this precisely according to military laws? All the more so since we developed all the by-laws and sent them to the Cabinet of Ministers a long time ago. Including the specification: what, where and for how much we will buy. So that we can spend money on the Motherland. We do not ask for such privileges for other purchases,” he said.
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Filatov expressed the opinion that by its reluctance to approve the relevant decision, the government hides the fear that the Cabinet of Ministers may look incompetent in the eyes of the people.
“Or that we will show holes in the state budget. We have already decided to bring this story to the point of absurdity. And let the community give all this money to the presidential fund? We are not sorry. Because the military man who comes to us for thermal imagers does not care who will pay for them – the state or the local government,” he explained in detail.
Filatov noted that Shmyhal's thesis appears in private conversations that if local self-governments are granted such rights, then separatism and federalization will occur at the local level. communities will finance our brigades. That is, to bribe the loyalty of the military. That they what? Better protected our people from bombs? It has already reached an anecdote when the mayor of Bila Tserkva called me and offered the following: “Let me buy trucks for your 93rd brigade, and you for my 72nd. So that the prime minister does not think that we are bribing our military,” the mayor of Dnipro was indignant.
He emphasized that the rumors that the mayors will finance some of their own brigades are a complete delusion, since all purchases are carried out based on the requests of the military commissions, which go through the military state administrations. if he likes it, he has all the authority to pull us by the sleeve. That is, the situation is deadlocked. We are supported by the profile deputy of the OPU, the head of the State Administration of Ukraine, the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Regional Development, and the Prime Minister simply does not put the issue on the agenda,” he emphasized.
It should be noted that the Mayor of Dnipro Boris Filatov stated that Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal personally, despite the support of local self-government initiatives of the Minister of Defense and the President, has been blocking the request to allow mayors to spend money blocked in their accounts on body armor for two months, strong> thermal imagers, trucks and other needs for the army.
Read more materials of Inna Vedernikova at the link.
