President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated that the system of medical and social expert commissions (MSEC) should be abolished.
He said this in his evening video address following a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) on the situation of MSEC and fraudulent disabilities among officials, Ukrinform reports.
“It’s not just prosecutors, by the way. There are hundreds of such instances of clearly unjustified disabilities among officials in the Customs Service, Tax Service, Pension Fund system, and local administrations. All of this needs to be dealt with thoroughly and swiftly. The MSEC system should be abolished,” Zelensky said.
He stressed that for real and comprehensive change, it is needed to fully digitalize all stages of the disability assessment process. According to him, government officials – in the Ministry of Digital Transformation, in the digital team of the Ministry of Defense – have the power to ensure the relevant changes.
“The problem is not only that officials use their connections to obtain disability status. The problem is also that people with real disabilities, in particular those disabled in combat, are often unable to get proper status and fair payments. The Government does not have much time to fix this,” the head of state said.
The president also stressed that there must be personal accountability and personnel decisions based on this situation in the central government bodies – along the vertical of MSEC control.
He noted that the decision by the National Security and Defense Council now provides for a full audit of pensions and other accruals for all officials who have “arranged” a disability status for themselves.
Zelensky recalled that there was a report to the National Security and Defense Council by the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Maliuk, and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Ihor Klymenko, on the inspections and investigations that are already underway.
“Unfortunately, the reports by the Minister of Health of Ukraine and the Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine were very unconvincing,” the head of state said.
“We need to go through all the horizons of local authorities separately,” Zelensky added.
As reported, President Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council to address numerous instances of violations by MSEC and fraudulent disabilities among officials.
Among other things, the situation in Ukraine’s prosecution bodies was addressed. Following this, Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin wrote a letter of resignation.
The NSDC approved a decision to liquidate medical and social expert commissions from December 31, 2024.
