In the materials of the monitoring of the election campaign, OPORA has drawn attention to the activities of the FPP candidate in district 164, Zbarazh, Volodymyr Klymenko, and his Galicia–Volhynia Charitable Foundation. According to the observers, the charity work done on behalf of this foundation exceeds similar work not only in the district but also within the oblast. Often it directly falls under the definition of the law on “indirect bribery of voters”. The chance to hear opinions of the representatives of the candidate Klymenko occurred thanks to the press briefing of the candidate's agent — Valerii Huberskyi. Interestingly, the subject matter of the event was “Fraud — Offence of the Voter”.
The facts that OPORA representatives wanted to check concerned at least two matters — at whose expense maintenance of the roads that which candidate Klymenko opened was carried out? Also — how they assess the last incident exposed by OPORA when the said candidate presented money to teachers at the raion celebration of the Teacher's Day. The answers we got shed the light on how the charity work was done, and how the candidate's headquarters was trying to avoid direct responsibility.
Roads Lobbied, Requests Anonymous?
In the media as well as on the official website of the Galicia–Volhynia CF, the information appeared repeatedly that at roads openings of the oblast, a self-nominated candidate for People's Deputy, in the district No.164, Volodymyr Klymenko was present, whose foundation has funded the said roads.
However, certain publications extensively posted the responses from the Office of the Prosecutor General, the SSU, and the MIA to the request of a „people's deputy“ which deny the involvement of the said CF in maintenance of these parts. It is important that on the official documents published, where seals of institutions and signatures of officials were indicated, the name of the people's deputy who submitted the request was mostly absent (on some them appeared the name of Orest Muts).
It was this very moment which Mr Huberskyi drew attention to, who at first noted that usually, requests which are published and had come from an anonymous people's deputy simply don't exist. Nevertheless, he agreed that some of these requests were inspected by various institutions. Accordingly, for the inspections, the works were stopped for some time. Although later they were renewed as there was nothing wrong, according to him, with these actions.
Meanwhile, as the agent of Volodymyr Klymenko mentions, the candidate for Deputy had the right to be at the roads opening, “The renovated roads that had been opened can be divided into two components. The first part is the roads refurbished for the budget funds. The role of Volodymyr Klymenko was to lobby the allocation of funds from the budget for these roads; an opportunity was found to allocate these funds to Ternopil Oblast. That is why he was present at the openings of some roads. He also supervised the work progress and use of these funds. As to the other component implemented at the expense of Galicia–Volhynia Foundation, on requests of people, these roads have nothing to do with state budget. Mostly, they are roads between the villages where people appealed, and there wasn't even any transport there. There was an opportunity to do blading and porthole repair for them. This was done at the expense of the foundation.”
From Klymenko Foundation but Not by Klymenko
Another fact that OPORA representatives wanted to be commented on is awarding the teachers and presentating cash prizes from the Galicia–Volhynia CF on the occasion of the Teacher's Day.
Article 74 (paragraph 13) of the Law of Ukraine On the Election of People's Deputies clearly states that “election campaigning or handing out money... to voters, establishments, institutions, or organisations along with appeals or proposals to vote or not to vote for a certain party or candidate for People's Deputy, or along with mentioning the name of a party or a candidate shall be deemed indirect bribing of voters.”
“The facts connected with awarding certain teachers are true,” says Mr Huberskyi. “However, not by Klymenko but by the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Galicia-Volhynia Foundation” Yurii Kulachek. If to consider the legal aspect of the matter it should be explained that Volodymyr Klymenko is the founder of the foundation. Before the start of the election campaign, he had been the President of the foundation. Once he was officially registered as a candidate for People's Deputy he withdrew from the President of the foundation. While having the right to remain the founder. Therefore, all the functions in the foundation are performed by the Chairman of the Supervisory Board Yurii Kulachek who conducted this award. He is entitled to do so. In this context of actions, the law isn't violated. Volodymyr Kymenko didn't present these awards, either personally or let alone as a candidate.
However, as it is known, in this case there were both appeals to vote for a particular candidate and mention of his name on the envelopes in which cash prizes were presented, therefore — clearly, a violation occurred. However, the candidate's agent didn't mention that. There are no mentions of awarding the teachers on the official website of the Galicia–Volhynia CF either though this resource covers the activities of the foundation in great detail.
More about the activities of the Galicia–Volhynia CF in OPORA materials —
http://oporaua.org/news/2732-ternopilshchyna-groshova-premija-vchyteljam-vid-kandydata-vse-oficijno
P.S. Although OPORA is trying to closely monitor activities of various charitable foundations, including also Galicia–Volhynia, and objectively report them, there are cases of unfair references to OPORA materials. Indeed, in the publication MOVEMENT FOR LIBERATION, OPORA material on the activities of Galicia–Volhynia CF was reprinted but changes were made both in the title and the material, which twists the content of the message. We consider it unacceptable to reprint finished materials indicating the authorship while making changes that affect the content of a message. We believe that in such cases, it will be much more correct to sign the material by that person who edits it, and refer to OPORA only when mentioning the facts published by the civil network.