Kremenchuk deputy contacts the police over a local TRC allegedly interfering with her work
Kremenchuk City Council deputy Larysa Horyslavets filed a statement with the police, claiming that the municipal enterprise "Kremenchuk Television and Radio Company" was interfering with her parliamentary work.
She reported this in a video message on Facebook and shared the details with the IMI representative in Poltava oblast.
In her statement, Horyslavets wrote that the Kremenchuk Communal Television and Radio Company refused to explain their budget spending.
"This is the interference, because it is the deputies who decide on the local budget: how much money is to be given to whom. So the deputies have the right to ask: what was the money spent on and why?" says Larysa Horyslavets.
According to the deputy, during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the TV company started buying programs from third parties.
"At least UAH 700,000 were spent on this. Yet, the company has 53 official employees. I believe that my inquiry as a parliamentarian is quite warranted, and when Serhiy Perepelyatnyk, the CEO of the KTRC, ignores my appeals it is entirely covered by Part 1 of Article 351 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, 'Obstructing the activities of a Ukrainian deputy and a deputy of a local council,'" Horyslavets said.
On October 10, the deputy filed a police statement about interference with the deputy's work, because, as she noted, she has repeatedly tried to learn the intention behind the use of budget money, but her deputy's appeals yielded no response.
"Back in 2020, I submitted two parliamentary inquiries to clarify the circumstances behind the possible embezzlement of budget money on the part of the CP 'Kremenchuk Television and Radio Company' and the licensing violations; the inquiries did not get enough votes. The demands I submitted to the mayor mentioned the need to audit the KTRC financial decisions, to provide information about the company's staff and a list of programs they produced themselves. There was no response," Horyslavets told the IMI representative.
According to the deputy, she did receive a reply in 2021, the letter did not contain any answers to her questions.
"During 2022, I sent three addresses to the KTRC, demanding clarifications on their financial decisions and production work, their staff. I received a letter from the mayor: 'The information you provided will be passed on to the company's executives.' This year, in February, I wrote another appeal. I received an intermediate response that I would hear from them later. But I did not hear from them. The manager does not pick up the phone, they avoid communication," says the deputy.
Horyslavets said that in May she came to the company's office for an interview, but could not meet the CEO.
"Since then, there has been no response from the KTRC management. On October 10, 2023, I wrote a statement to the police. It applies only to my latest appeals for 2023. On October 16, 2023, my statement was entered into the EDPR, filed under Part 1 of Art. 351 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine ("Obstructing the activities of a Ukrainian deputy and a deputy of a local council")," Horyslavets said.
In his comment to the IMI representative, the head of the Kremenchuk Television and Radio Company, Serhiy Perepelyatnyk, said that he viewed the situation as pressure on the mass media and asked her to submit an information request, promising to provide the editors' stance on the deputy's statement in the response.
Larysa Horyslavets is an investigative journalist, project manager at the NGO Kremenchuk Information and the Educational Center "European Club", EDC/HRE trainer.
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