It’s not just those in the nation’s top government jobs who are living the good life in Ukraine, it seems.
The heads of local governments around the country are doing just as well as lawmakers, ministers and other top state officials in the capital, according to the information they have filed in Ukraine’s e-declaration of assets system.
All public officials had until March 30 to file a detailed online disclosure of their own and their immediate family’s assets and income in 2017. Some regional governors and mayors of big cities revealed that they own thousands square meters of land, numerous flats and houses, along with guns, luxury jewelry, and pricey cars.
Oleksiy Savchenko, the governor of Mykolaiv Oblast, where the average wage is Hr 7,000 ($266), disclosed that he keeps Hr 12.2 million, $3.6 million and 1 million euros in cash. Chernivtsi Oblast ruler Ivan Muntyan, together with his wife Hanna Muntyan, disclosed ownership of several businesses and more than 60,000 square meters of land.
Another controversial official, Odesa Mayor Hennady Trukhanov, who supposedly has Russian citizenship, and is a suspect in several corruption cases, declared his elderly mother Mariya Trukhanova was the main bread winner in the family.
In 2017 she received Hr 18,000 in pension payments and about Hr 7,400 income from renting out her land plot. She also has Hr 1.6 million and $373,000 in cash.
However, no matter how suspicious these declarations might appear, there’s not much prospect of that they will ever be checked: in 2018 – two years after the law on obligatory online declaration of assets for all public officials came into force – the National Agency on Corruption Prevention still hasn’t launched its automatic e-declarations verification system.
Instead, staff at the National Agency on Corruption Prevention have been checking declarations manually, spending about 60 days on each one.
As of November, the agency was studying only some 456 electronic declarations from top officials out of the 1.5 million asset declarations filed in 2015-2016.
Ukraine has been getting some outside help: The UNDP mission in Ukraine developed a special verification module for the National Corruption Prevention Commission in 2017.
But the launch of electronic verification of e-declarations is a long and complicated process, which needs a lot of preparatory study and testing, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention press service said on Feb. 15.
Furthermore, the commission still has no access, or limited access, to the more than 10 government registries needed to verify the information that officials have disclosed in their e-declarations.
In the meantime, here’s a peek at publically available information about the assets and income of several top regional officials.
Chernivtsi’s landlords
Chernivtsi Oblast is located in south-west Ukraine, on the border with Romania. It is the smallest oblast in Ukraine – 8,100 square kilometers at the foothills of the Ukrainian part of the Carpathian Mountains range.
It is also the oblast with the country’s lowest wages. While the average wage nationally in 2017 was Hr 7,000 ($266), in Chernivtsi it was only Hr 5,200 ($197).
But not everybody in Chernivtsi has a low salary. For instance, Chernivtsi Mayor Oleksiy Kaspruk took home an official salary of Hr 437,000 in 2017, making him one of the highest-paid mayors in Ukraine in 2017. Kharkiv Mayor Hennadiy Kernes was the best-paid city head in the country last year, with a Hr 600,000 salary.
Even Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko earned less than Kernes – the president’s salary in 2017 was Hr 336,000.
And according to his e-declaration, Kaspruk earned a generous raise last year. In 2016 he declared Hr 233,000 as his mayor’s salary. Kaspruk lives in an 81-square-meter apartment in Chernivtsi, registered in the name of his wife, Antonina Kaspruk, who works in Chernivtsi Institute of Trade and Economics.
She also owns almost 50 percent of a local IT company called IT Group. Kaspruk has declared no bank accounts and savings in cash but got more than Hr 31,000 in reimbursement from the state program of credits for residential energy efficiency upgrades.
Another Chernivtsi Oblast official, Ivan Muntyan, declared a salary of Hr 383,950. Like many Ukrainian officials, Muntyan keeps most of his money in cash: Hr 850,000, $87,000, 51,000 euros.
His wife Hanna Muntyan is a successful businesswoman with two mining companies in the village of Kamyanka and the town of Hlyboka. In 2017, she disclosed income of Hr 276,395, and cash holdings of Hr 1 million 600,000, $110,000 and 47,000 euros.
The Muntyans also declared ownership of more than 66,000 square meters of land in Kamyanka, along with a 1,000 square meter land plot and a house in Chernivtsi.
Millionaire governor
Mykolaiv Oblast in the south of Ukraine has an international port with access to the Black Sea, but one of the worst business environments of all of Ukraine’s regions, according to Delovaya Stolitsa business news website ranking and the governor Oleksiy Savchenko.
Before he entered politics in 2014 as a Bloc of Petro Poroshenko lawmaker, Savchenko had worked as an Interior Ministry official, had headed three banks, had been the CEO of state alcohol producer UkrsSpirt (for two months) and had had a career as a singer. He is still a shareholder in a private company, Metal Service.
He has also published a number of music videos, owns a karaoke system, and declared owning copyright on more than 60 songs.
In 2016 Poroshenko appointed Savchenko governor of Mykolaiv Oblast. Savchenko made more than 40 grammatical errors in his short self-presentation letter in Ukrainian, but still won the competition to become governor.
Savchenko temporarily resigned from the governor’s post on March 30, saying he wanted “to avoid speculation” over his supposed involvement in the tragic death of Ukrainian hero pilot Vladyslav Voloshyn, a former acting head of Mykolaiv Airport, who shot himself in March.
Mykolaiv investigative journalist Andriy Lokhmatov claimed in an article published in January that Voloshyn had been pressured by the local administration into unlawfully signing documents on procurement tenders at Mykolaiv Airport.
Initially, Voloshyn had refused to agree, but in the end signed the documents after being appointed the acting head of the airport. Savchenko has many times called the renovation of Mykolaiv Airport one of his personal priorities.
Savchenko announced his resignation after he returned to Kyiv from abroad, where since March 5 he had been undergoing medical treatment.
In his e-declaration, Savchenko disclosed owing 45,000 square meters of land in Kyiv Oblast worth more than Hr 1.2 million.
He also has a 10,000-square-meter land plot in Kirovograd Oblast. Apart from that he owns two non-residential premises in Kyiv worth a total of Hr 814,000.
In 2016, Savchenko purchased a 60.9-square-meter apartment in Mykolaiv worth Hr 800,000.
In 2017, he declared an official salary of Hr 141,997 and more than Hr 4.8 million in earnings from selling assets – two cars, three non-residential premises, and corporate rights. He also lent more than Hr 31 million “to third persons.”
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi gives opening remarks at the Kyiv Post Employment Fair on April 22, 2017 in Lviv. (Markiian Lyseiko)
Lviv mayor’s wealthy wife
Lviv has the reputation of being Ukraine’s most flourishing cities, and the tourist hub of western Ukraine. In 2017 tourists spent more than 600 million euros in the city, the Lviv Tourism Office reported in January.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi and his wife Kateryna Kit-Sadova, the owner of Teleradiolux broadcasting company, declared ownership of a house worth Hr 4.5 million and three land plots worth Hr 997,000 total.
They purchased a third, 301-square-meter land plot for Hr 428,000 in 2017.
In 2017 Kit-Sadova also purchased a Skoda Kodiak car worth Hr 968,700. In addition, she has owned a Mercedes-Benz Viano since 2012.
According to Sadovyi’s declaration, Kit-Sadova is a shareholder and owner of the Teleradiolux broadcasting company, which includes local Lviv news website zaxid.net, the Lux Radio company, Visma Radio-TV, Radio Continent, and much more.
She is not only in the media business but also сo-owns a catering company called Royal Court.
Sadovyi is also one of the highest paid mayors in Ukraine. In 2017 he earned a salary of Hr 491,780.
Nevertheless, it is Kit-Sadova who is the main breadwinner in the family.
Sadovyi’s wife declared earning Hr 2.3 million in wages, keeping $10,000 and Hr 15,000 in cash, and taking Hr 6.7 million in loans from Ukrgazbank.
She provided almost the same sum (Hr 6.1 million) as financial aid to the Teleradiolux broadcasting company.
Sadovyi has five sons. In 2017 the Sadovyis paid Hr 257,730 or 7,000 pounds for “Pilgrims Coaching of Professionals” English-language courses in the United Kingdom.
According to the official Pilgrims website, a week’s course costs 2,000 pounds. Students also pay for accommodation. Sadovyi confirmed that it was him who studied English in the U.K.
Sadovyi told the Kyiv Post on April 10, he prefers to study English “in an English-speaking environment”.
“And the program in Britain is very good,” Lviv mayor said. Sadovyi said he spends a week a year in the United Kingdom, studying English at his own cost.
“Of course, I understand I won’t learn it in one week, but due to my busy schedule, I can’t afford to spend more time studying,” Sadovyi added.
Odesa Mayor Hennady Trukhanov stands at a Feb. 15 hearing at Kyiv’s Solomyansky Court, which released him without bail in a graft case. Later the court also refused to suspend him as mayor of Odesa. (UNIAN)
Odesa mayor’s rich mother
Odesa Mayor Trukhanov is a controversial figure: a suspect in several corruption cases and an offshore scandal, he was detained by officers of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau in Kyiv’s Boryspil International Airport on Feb. 14. By Feb. 27 had been released by a court without bail.
Trukhanov hadn’t been seen in Odesa for more than a month-and-a-half: He left on a business trip to Turkey on Dec. 19 and was on vacation from Dec. 27, Trukhanov said in court. He flew to Kyiv from Warsaw after being on business trips to Davos, Switzerland and Athens, Greece, he said.
Trukhanov declared living with his mother Maria and daughter Alisa.
Trukhanov declared ownership of a 252.4-square-meter house and a 131-square-meter apartment in Odesa. His mother Maria also owns a 600-square-meter land plot in Odesa, and a 26,970-square-meter land plot and a house in the village of Pishchanka in Vinnytsya Oblast.
Trukhanov is a holder of 292,754 shares, or a 0.016 percent stake, in public joint stock company Odesa Oil-Refinery Plant. The plant has been undergoing bankruptcy proceeding since 2016.
In June, Suvorivskiy District Court of Odesa arrested the Odesa Oil-Refinery Plant at the request of the Prosecutor General Office of Ukraine in connection with a fraud case against the fugitive pro-Russian oligarch Olexiy Kurchenko.
In 2017 Trukhanov earned Hr 106,381 as his mayor’s wage. He keeps Hr 50,000 and $83,000 in cash and has more than Hr 340,000 on his bank accounts.
Trukhanov saw his official wage increase in 2017 – in 2016 he earned Hr 65,000.
But his cash amounts decreased significantly last year, as he spent Hr 15,000 and $47,600.
His mother Mariya Trukhanova, who received Hr 18,000 in pension payments and about Hr 7,400 from renting out her land plot in 2017, disclosed keeping Hr 1.6 million and $373,000 in cash.
Trukhanov is also one of the founders of Ukraine’s Muay Thai Boxing Federation.
