In Kharkiv region, 470 fake disability certificates were canceled. What is known?
5 March 2025 20:44
In Kharkiv region, based on the SBU evidence base, 470 fictitious medical certificates of disability for men of military age issued by the regional medical and social expert commission in October 2024 were canceled. The chairman of the MSEC and 12 doctors were also notified of suspicion.
This was reported by the SBU, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
According to the investigation, the suspects sold fake disability certificates to men who planned to make reservations and regularly receive state social benefits for amounts ranging from 2 to 5 thousand dollars.
In addition to canceling the fake medical reports, the SBU together with the Pension Fund stopped the payment of illegally granted pensions issued through the fraud and prevented monthly state losses of over UAH 2.4 million.
Based on the newly collected evidence, the SBU investigators additionally served the head of the MSEC and seven of his accomplices a notice of suspicion under Art. 2, 3 of Art. 255 (creation of a criminal organization and management of such an organization committed by an official using his/her official position);
art. 2, 4, Art. 28, Part 1, Art. 114-1 (obstruction of the lawful activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine committed by a criminal organization);
ч. 4, Art. 28, Art. 332, para. 3 (facilitating the illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine by providing means and removing obstacles, committed by a criminal organization for mercenary motives);
ч. 4 of Art. 28, Part 1 of Art. 366, Part 5 of Art. 27, Part 4 of Art. 28, Part 1 of Art. 366 of the Criminal Code (entering false information into official documents by an official committed by a criminal organization).
All offenders are in custody. The issue of additional qualification of criminal actions for five more defendants is being resolved.
What do you know about the MSEC inspections?
In Ukraine, based on the results of inspections of decisions of medical and social expert commissions (MSEC), disability was canceled for 281 officials, according to Health Minister Viktor Lyashko.
New decisions have been made in 232 cases: 160 officials have had their disability group changed, and another 72 have had their decision validity period changed.
Another 466 officials have been summoned for examination.
In general, as noted by Lyashko, 1359 cases out of 2636 included in the list have been processed to date. This list was formed on the basis of information from law enforcement and is dynamically increasing as additional data is received, he added.
The review of officials’ cases is carried out by experts of the State Institution “Research Institute of Medical and Social Problems of Disability”.
on October 22, 2024, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy chaired a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council on the situation with medical and social expert commissions and the abuse of disability by officials of various state bodies. Numerous violations and obviously fake disabilities of officials were discussed.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that the leadership of the Central Medical and Social Expert Commission and the heads of the relevant department of the Ministry of Health, which was responsible for coordinating the activities of the MSEC, had been dismissed.
on December 30, 2024, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a law providing for the liquidation of the MSEC.
Starting January 1, 2025, the assessment of a person’s daily functioning was introduced instead of the MSEC.
