Igor Shpak, Head of the Health Department of the Odessa City Council
The arrival of Sergei Ivanovich Sheludchenko as chief physician of the Odessa City Dermatovenereology and Venereal Diseases Dispensary (OCDVD) in June 2014 did not dramatically change the situation. There were no misfires, and everything somehow settled into its usual corrupt pattern.
However, some employees "rebelled" and began to distance themselves from signing timesheets with "dead souls" and weekly kickbacks to charity to fulfill the plan for the city department.
The head doctor failed to pacify them. They started writing to members of parliament, the police, Odesa Oblast Governor Mikheil Saakashvili, the Anti-Corruption Office, and others. In short, things got heated in the municipal institution. Soon, the whole thing leaked on television, prompted by anti-corruption activists, and gradually escalated into criminal cases.
Corruption, a widespread viral disease, has long been recognized in the medical field. But its diagnosis has always been a persistent problem, especially when it's exploited under patronage.
Returning to the facts, 29 "dead souls" were discovered on the staff of the Odesa City Department of Internal Affairs, who successfully divvied up the medical facility's budget without showing up for work. It turns out that even a foreign immigrant could "eat away" at the Odesa city budget. According to experts' rough estimates, the potential losses amounted to at least 1,5 million hryvnias—and this is just for the past two years. The image of the orphanage from the film "The Twelve Chairs" and the orphan who lives there inevitably comes to mind.
But the charm of the situation is that times have changed, and salaries are paid to bank cards through the city health department's centralized accounting department. And someone specifically went to collect the money from our "dead souls" in front of an ATM camera, kept it for themselves, and reported it monthly to the centralized accounting department.
The most interesting thing is that any inspection by the city health department could have, but perhaps didn't want to, actually established the damage. After all, to do so, they would have had to "examine" and establish the absence of outpatient records, which the "dead souls" couldn't keep track of.
But this proved to be an overwhelming task not only for them but also for the authorized members of the Odessa City Council's Health Department commission. The departmental inspection itself was forced upon them by complaints and appeals to various authorities from employees and the public. Its outcome was a report on the results of the inspection of the municipal institution by the State Committee for Internal Affairs dated August 10, 2015. In this document, the existence of "dead souls" became de jure obvious. But this only led to their "dismissal" and the "harassment" of employees dissatisfied with this situation, including publicly.
Trade union meeting at the OGKVD. Photo by the author
Following this, activists from the Anti-Corruption Office publicly called on Odessa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov to fire Serhiy Sheludchenko, the Chief Physician of the Odessa Regional Dermatovenereology Dispensary, following the results of the inspection, and to conduct similar inspections of "dead souls" in all medical institutions in the city.
Briefing by the Anti-Corruption Office at the OKMC. Photo by the author.
He didn’t listen... But it is he who appoints the heads of public utilities and enterprises to their positions.
Having reviewed the materials, complaints, and appeals from OGVD employees, the Anti-Corruption Office public organization decided to put an end to the career of Sergei Ivanovich Sheludchenko by contacting the competent authorities: the Primorsky Regional Department of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Odessa Oblast on September 16, 2015, with a notification of a criminal offense. The Anti-Corruption Office later requested information about adding the case to the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations (ERDR) (outgoing No. 312/26/11) dated November 26, 2015, at the location where the notification was filed. The response received (outgoing No. EO46396 dated September 29, 2016, signed by I. M. Mrachko, Head of the RO OGVD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs), was that no grounds for registration in the ERDR had been identified and that a re-examination was necessary. Having received a response in November, dated September, we realized the chief physician's backers hadn't wasted any time. And the silence surrounding this matter has elements of a spiritual conspiracy...
Therefore, on November 30, 2015 (incoming #8665 dated November 30, 2015), a notice of a criminal offense was sent to David Sakvarelidze, Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine and Prosecutor of the Odessa Region, who was then "passing through" Odessa. And guess what? Was it registered in the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations (URDR) within 24 hours? No, it wasn't!
On December 9, 2015, I filed a complaint with the Primorsky District Court regarding the inaction of the Odessa Regional Prosecutor for failing to enter data into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations (URDR). And yes, on December 18, 2015, the court upheld the complaint regarding the prosecutor's inaction, issued a Ukhvala, and ordered the case to be registered in accordance with Article 214 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine in the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations (URDR). As a result, the Primorsky Police Department of Odessa registered case No. 12015160500012010 under Articles 364, 366, and 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. We only received a response from the Odessa Regional Prosecutor's Office regarding registration in January 2016.
So, you think it's started!? Law enforcement agencies did nothing to conduct or collect information during this period. Witnesses and participants were not interviewed. Meanwhile, based on complaints, the State Financial Inspectorate of the Odessa Region ordered a comprehensive audit of the entire Odessa City Council Health Department from October 1, 2013, to November 30, 2015, which lasted until March 2016, including our subordinates from the Odessa City Council.
The materials were included in the Health Department Audit Report, which revealed numerous violations and abuses, and which we obtained upon request. As a result of this audit, many "dead souls" were dismissed from medical facilities under the city's health department, as well as from the OGKVD itself, during the first half of 2015 following public outcry and widespread protests. Incidentally, the head physician, upon learning of the upcoming commission, hastily began laying off the "dead souls." But even here, he didn't fail to profit – those not listed as on vacation "received" compensation, while those on vacation received union health assistance, further increasing the damage done. We were forced to draw greater public attention to this issue through the media.
But the story doesn't end there; it continues. Chief Physician S. I. Sheludchenko continues to work in his position and hasn't even been suspended. Igor Viktorovich Shpak, Head of the Odessa City Council's Health Department, and the accounting staff have also remained in office. So far, the only losses have been suffered by the "dead souls" and those who fought corruption in this municipal institution. Complainants have been dismissed and reinstated. Trials against key witnesses to the embezzlement of budget funds are still ongoing, undermining trust in reforms and the genuine fight against corruption in healthcare, replacing them with harassment of dissatisfied individuals. Incidentally, methods of collecting denunciations from OGKVD employees have also been successfully used.
What did Sergei Sheludchenko himself say in response to the Anti-Corruption Office activists and the media regarding the well-founded claims?
He calls all accusations of corruption slander. He says he knew nothing about the "dead souls"—those employees were hired before him.
"These are mostly orderlies, district nurses. How can I, sitting here, check how a nurse in the fifth ward is doing? I've been reprimanded. But these 29 people weren't even hired in my presence," Sheludchenko insists.
He also claims there are no extortions at the dispensary. Patients only receive money as a thank you. There's insufficient budget funding.
We decided to delve deeper into the character of the head physician. Perhaps he truly is an indispensable beacon in the fight against dermatovenereological diseases? Interestingly, before his appointment as head physician (orders linked), Order No. 46 of the Regional State Committee for Internal Affairs dated June 25, 2013, "On the unsatisfactory performance of the Regional State Committee for Internal Affairs in combating the spread of HIV infection," stated that a number of doctors were ignoring Ministry of Health Orders No. 415 and 446 and had failed to offer HIV testing to any patient, including S.I. Sheludchenko, a physician at the Kyiv Regional Clinical Hospital.
"People in contact with HIV-infected patients are at risk of infection. In this case, the actions of the aforementioned doctors are criminally punishable and lead to the spread of HIV/AIDS, as all medical personnel have been constantly reminded of," the order states.
The order's preamble further states that such actions are considered sabotage, posing a threat to the lives of the population, and that the facts will be reported to the prosecutor's office.
If we return to history, and not to a single order, it turns out that the future chief physician had the following characteristics when treating patients and conducting examinations, reflected in Order No. 18 of June 18, 2004, according to the OGKVD:
- the described clinical picture of the disease does not correspond to the established diagnosis;
- treatment of patients is monotonous, primitive, and often inadequate;
– sick leave certificates were issued without the patient’s application or the approval of the head physician;
– there are no dates for extending sick leave;
- dates for appearances are not assigned or are assigned incorrectly;
– the dates of extension of the sick leave or the dates of its closure are not indicated;
- sick leave is extended without justification;
- individually, sick leave is extended for more than 10 days.
It is precisely these medical personnel who apparently have the potential to become the driving force behind reforms in "modern" medicine. It was clearly not professional qualities that formed the basis for the decision to select S. I. Sheludchenko, Chief Physician of the Regional City Department of Internal Affairs. Experience shows that, more often than not, these are banknotes bearing images of dead American presidents in an A5 envelope.
Whoever foisted such a "pig" on city medicine clearly didn't think about it itself!?
I think it's no coincidence that a couple more lines about Sheludchenko's criminal offenses at the Primorsky Police Department of the Odessa Main Directorate of the National Police in the Odessa Region appeared in the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations this year, when lawyers became involved in the case:
– On April 13, 2016, case No. 12016160500002749 was registered in the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations under Article 364, Part 1 – investigator S. P. Balaban with the preamble: “The chief physician of the State Institution Skin and Venereal Diseases Dispensary illegally took possession of the institution’s funds”;
– On May 21, 2016, case No. 12016160500003606 was registered in the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations under Article 366, Part 1 – investigator O. V. Shpitko with the preamble: “Forgery of personnel files when hiring employees who do not actually work.”
The head physician's grip and growing skills are palpable, even though he simply misused his position. According to staff, he effectively destroyed the dermatovenereology service. And judging by his work history, he wasn't particularly good at fulfilling his responsibilities as a rank-and-file doctor. And he created a corresponding environment. We also received a stack of complaints against Dr. V. A. Kozlenko of the same Regional City Department of Internal Affairs, who demonstrated numerous negative qualities while helping patients recover. But that's another topic on the road to further corruption at this institution.
We once again strongly recommend that Odessa Mayor G. L. Trukhanov dismiss the Chief Physician of the Odessa City Department of Internal Affairs, Sergei Ivanovich Sheludchenko, for loss of trust, and the Director of the Odessa City Council's Health Department, Igor Viktorovich Shpak, for poor personnel management, which led to financial irregularities in his department.
We'd like to address the chief physicians of other medical institutions in Odessa and the surrounding region: are there no "dead souls" in your clinic or hospital? Huh?
Sergey Sarafanyuk, for “No corruption!”
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