Transcarpathia against the Ministry of Finance: the court found the failure of the Ministry to allocate funds for the disaster management illegal (+ DOCUMENTS)

The region received only 48.5 million hryvnias out of the required 184.1 million

Despite numerous appeals from the regional state administration on the urgent need for funds for the relief of the devastating flood on December 15-17, 2017, the Cabinet of Ministers during 2018 provided only a small share of funding for reconstruction work. The total loss amounted to UAH 184.1 million, of which 165.2 million is needed for bank reinforcement. These figures are confirmed by all necessary conclusions and expert assessments. However, in April 2018, the region received 18.8 million hryvnias (first tranche) and in October – 29.7 million hryvnias (second tranche) for emergency repair works. In total, it is 48.5 million hryvnias (see below the expert opinion of the Ministry of Regional Development and the order of the Cabinet of Ministers on allocation of funds).

– To draw attention to the problem that is not solved, we were forced to sue the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, – Hennadiy Moskal says. – And on January 14 this year, the Transcarpathian District Administrative Court ruled that the Ministry’s inaction was illegal because it failed to ensure the implementation of the Law "On the State Budget for 2018" regarding the financing of the anti-flood program in Transcarpathia (see below the operative part of the court decision). We understand that there is not enough money in the state budget. But protecting people from the disaster is, firstly, not an expenditure that you can save on, and secondly, the prevention of natural disaster costs much less than dealing with the consequences of it. Transcarpathia knows it from experience.