Poroshenko: PIC on fortifications has not started its work in 2.5 months - we demand to dismiss head and change status of commission. VIDEO
The head of the Servant of the People parliamentary commission on fortifications and the purchase of UAVs should be dismissed, and the status of the PIC changed to investigative. It is urgent to unblock the work of the PIC, as 38 billion hryvnias have already been financed from the budget, and construction work is almost 90% complete.
Petro Poroshenko said this during a briefing, Censor.NET reports citing the EU press service.
Poroshenko stressed that the parliamentary temporary special commission on fortifications and the purchase of UAVs, established in May this year, has not yet been able to receive full information from government agencies on the cost of materials and services and the scope of construction work. Officials hide the answers under the stamp "for official use" and "top secret".
Moreover, the commission itself has not met for several weeks.
"What happened to at least 38 billion hryvnias allocated by the government for the construction of fortifications? They were spent on inflated prices for services, inflated prices for materials, and the wrong choice of locations for the construction of fortifications. And a huge 90% incompletion of construction," the fifth President of Ukraine stressed.
"And the price we pay for this is dozens of lives, maybe hundreds. Starting from the Avdiivka direction and ending with Vovchansk. Today, the enemy's advance in Pokrovsk and in most directions is explained by the fact that we have no fortifications," Poroshenko stressed.
At the same time, he notes, money is being allocated for road construction: in 2023, UAH 44 billion; in 2024, UAH 17 billion has already been spent.
"They don't build fortifications, they build roads because they have learnt to steal," he says.
Poroshenko said that European Solidarity has strict requirements to solve the problem with the fortifications.
"Immediately restore the functioning of the commission on UAVs and fortifications. To do this, it is necessary to immediately dismiss the head of the commission from the Servants of the People, who has been officially suspected of committing a criminal offence related to corruption. Because he performs a very important function - he hides the crimes of the authorities," he said.
Poroshenko noted that according to the materials of the Accounting Chamber and journalistic investigations, it has been clearly proven that prices were inflated by 20% to 4 times. "Prices for timber, metal, construction services, and none of them have been completed. The explanation for not holding transparent tenders is that they have kept everything secret," he added.
Poroshenko also stressed that the status of the temporary commission should be changed to an investigative commission. "The provisional investigative commission will investigate corruption crimes during the construction of fortifications and the procurement of unmanned aerial vehicles," he said.
"European Solidarity also demands an increase in the number of the State Special Transport Service and the number of support forces. "They should be entrusted with the construction of fortifications, providing them with equipment, finances, all the necessary equipment, materials," Poroshenko said.
"I am at the front every week and see how our military work - brilliantly. They will do everything. Give them vehicles, money and materials," he said.
Poroshenko also noted that responsible officials who ignore the requests of the parliamentary PIC should be punished. "Following almost three months of the commission's work, those officials who have the audacity not to respond to the commission's requests or not to provide information, hiding it under the classification of secrecy, should be immediately brought to justice. Neither the Temporary Special Commission nor the Anti-Corruption Committee have access to this information," he said.
He noted that the PIC should separately examine the prices at which the state purchases materials and works for the construction of fortifications. "Today, the position of prices, the position of quality and the position of integrity of contractors should be examined under a microscope by a temporary, and in the future, investigative commission," Poroshenko said.
