Director of the State Historic Architectural Conservation Area Khotyn Fortress Liubomyr Mykhailyna will soon be appointed the director general of Kyiv Pechersk Lavra Historical and Cultural Reserve, the Segodnia newspaper wrote with a reference to Culture Minister Mykhailo Kulyniak.
“The order on his appointment will appear next week. He is a
scientist, a museum worker,” the culture minister told the newspaper.
The Web site of the Culture Ministry reported that on August 31 Kyiv
Pechersk Lavra hosted a meeting of the supervisory board chaired by
Kulyniak. This meeting addressed the candidacy for the post of the new
director general of the museum complex – Ph.D. (History) Liubomyr
Mykhailyna, who previously headed the Khotyn Fortress.
As reported, Viktoria Lisnycha was sacked on August 9 following the
dismissal of a number of employees and a scandal with a bribe that
former Deputy Director General for International Cooperation Vlada
Prokayeva allegedly gave Culture Minister Mykhailo Kulyniak for her
post.
According to the media, the checks of the Culture Ministry of Ukraine
showed that Lisnycha made 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.
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.
