Culture Ministry dismisses CEO of Kyiv Pechersk Lavra Museum Complex

Viktoria Lisnycha has been dismissed from the post of Director General of Kyiv Pechersk Lavra National Historical and Cultural Reserve.

According to the Web site of the Culture Ministry of Ukraine, a relevant order was signed on August 9.

The Culture Ministry said that on July 31, Culture Minister Mykhailo Kulyniak met with Lisnycha and the staff of the museum complex. Then the director was reprimanded and ordered to address the issue of mass dismissals.

On August 9, the ministry's representatives conducted the check of the reserve's compliance with the relevant recommendations.

The checks showed that Lisnycha hadn't corrected the deficiencies, and made even more serious violations of the existing labor laws and terms of her contract with the ministry. In particular, on July 31 she ordered the dismissal of four employees of the museum complex, presumably based on the protocol of a meeting with the minister. However, the museum's office has no such protocol.

The checks also uncovered instances of the falsification of the two employee's letters of resignation with their consent dated August 3, 2012.

The results of the checks will be submitted to law-enforcement agencies, the Culture Ministry said.

Earlier, the media reported that in late July employees of the national reserve wrote an open letter to Ukrainian Culture Minister Mykhailo Kulyniak and asked him to dismiss Deputy Director General for Scientific and Sightseeing Activities Svitlana Zorynets and Deputy Director General for International Cooperation and ex-model Vlada Prokayeva. The employees explained their demand by the fact that the abovementioned persons threatened and "humiliated" them.

Later on, Prokayeva stated in public that she gave a bribe of $50,000 to Ukrainian Culture Minister Mykhailo Kulyniak for her appointment as deputy director general of Kyiv Pechersk Lavra National Historical and Cultural Reserve.

Prokayeva was dismissed from the post on July 31 after having worked at it for less than a month. According to media reports, the ex-model had a conflict with the director of the reserve, Viktoria Lisnycha.

In turn, the culture minister denied he had taken a bribe. The Interior Ministry of Ukraine has been instructed by the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine to check the statements by Vlada Prokayeva.