You're reading: ​Poroshenko’s faction wants to oust Kvitashvili, Ukraine’s health minister; he slams critics for financial self-interest

The parliamentary faction of President Petro Poroshenko's bloc accuses Health Minister Alexander Kvitashvili of failing to conduct reforms and wants him to resign. The president's bloc, with 144 members, is the largest faction among the 422 lawmakers in office.

Ihor Kononeko, the deputy head of the faction, announced the decision on June 30.

Kvitashvili, appointed six months ago, is outraged by the attempt to oust him, saying that the accusations against him are driven by the financial self-interests of those who would lose money if his changes come into law.

“Some don’t need reforms, some need what has been in place for the last 25 years – silent budget embezzlement,” Kvitashvili told a press conference the same day.

The minister said his team has succeeded in changing the whole system of state purchases of medicine, an historic source of corruption through non-competitive procurement, inflated prices and kickbacks.

He said he did this despite the lack of support in Parliament.

But he claims he has the support of the Cabinet of Ministers and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who earlier this month gave Kvitashvili three months to make improvements that Ukrainians would notice.

Yatsenyuk also granted a request by lawmakers to investigate him, the fourth such probe of his activities this year, Kvitashvili said. “They could have at least waited for the investigation results on July 10,” he said.

According to Kononenko, the faction held an internal audit of the ministry’s activities.

“We don’t have any claims against his reforming concept, but it’s not being implemented, the situation has gone out of control,” he told the Kyiv Post.

Among the main complaints, he said, are the ministry’s inability to conduct procurement of drugs, the lack of essential staff appointments and the issue of insurance medicine. Kononenko isn’t sure whether the pro-government coalition, which has a majority of Parliament seats, will vote for the resignation of Kvitashvili, but said “we will be looking for support.”

“Reforms are not a matter for one minister, it’s the interest of the whole country, including the lawmaking organ,” Kvitashvili said. “If anyone in the Rada thinks that I was parachuted here and they will travel around…while I will be sitting here writing laws and then someone who has never done anything in their life would criticize me for the absence of reforms, they are very wrong here,” he said.

He said lawmakers have not drafted a single law in support of his reforms.

Lawmaker Iryna Sysoenko, a member of the the parliamentary health committee, told the Kyiv Post that it’s too early to demand the minister’s resignation.

The Samopomich fraction is still waiting for a chance to discuss ministry’s activities with Kvitashvili, she said.

“The faction invited him several times, but he didn’t show up. We in the Verkhovna Rada haven’t yet seen the legislation package on the health care reform.” Sysoenko added.

Vitaliy Shabunin of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, a watchdog organization, championed the initiative of the president’s faction.

“It’s long overdue,” Shabunin said.

He described the situation with the state drugs procurement as a complete collapse, saying that about 30,000 HIV-positive patients don’t have medicine.

He told the Kyiv Post that Kvitashvili was delegated by Poroshenko’s Bloc faction, so “the absence of reform in that field is their responsibility. It’s an attempt to correct their own mistakes.”

Shabunin said Ukraine has plenty of professionals capable of taking over.

Kvitashvili said he will leave if forced.

If nobody needs this work, nothing really keeps me here,” he said. “I would like Verkhovna Rada to vote for these laws instead of voting for my future in Ukraine. For me it’s more important that the parliament adopts these laws than my career in Ukraine or any other countries”

Kyiv Post staff writers Alyona Zhuk and Olena Gordiienko can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected]