Charity fund that raised over 300 million after the attack on Okhmatdyt refuses to transfer funds, hospital director Zhovnir says

The director of “Okhmatdyt,” Volodymyr Zhovnir, emphasized that the hospital is considering the possibility of severing relations with the charity fund that received donations for the hospital’s restoration after the July 8 attack but is unwilling to transfer the collected funds to the official accounts.

According to Censor.NET, Volodymyr Zhovnir wrote about this on Facebook. Zhovnir reported that the fund’s details were published on the hospital’s and its employees’ social media pages, in the media, as well as on the websites and pages of several government bodies, public organizations, and all concerned citizens, so that anyone interested, including international partners, could send assistance.

“In all our publications and letters to sponsors since July 8, we included the fund’s details because we had always had normal cooperation before,” wrote the head of “Okhmatdyt.”

“The fact that the fund includes the name of National Children’s Specialized Hospital Okhmatdyt in its title served as additional confirmation for donors that the collected funds would be used for their intended purpose and would in no way be diverted to objectives unrelated to the reconstruction process. As a result, within a few days, the fund received a record amount. We had no doubts that these funds would be used for the restoration of ‘Okhmatdyt.’ Such a scenario was unimaginable… until today,” Zhovnir noted.

According to the hospital director, since the first public scandals and requests to transfer the money from the fund’s account to the hospital’s account for reconstruction, their communication with the fund began to deteriorate.

“In the morning, we learned that the Charitable Organization ‘Charity Fund Okhmatdyt – Healthy Childhood’ does not plan to transfer the funds to NCSH ‘Okhmatdyt’s’ account. As of August 16, 2024, 378 million UAH remain in the account of the Charitable Organization ‘Charity Fund Okhmatdyt – Healthy Childhood,'” Zhovnir wrote.

“Once again, now publicly, I demand that the fund transfer the funds received as charitable donations to all bank and financial accounts of the Charitable Organization ‘Charity Fund Okhmatdyt – Healthy Childhood’ to the Treasury account of NCSH ‘Okhmatdyt’ of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine for the restoration of the destroyed buildings and material-technical base of NCSH ‘Okhmatdyt’ following the missile attack on July 8, 2024,” the hospital director added.

Zhovnir stated that today the hospital is considering the possibility of severing relations with the fund due to their actions being dishonest and possibly fraudulent.

Additionally, on August 15, the head of the charity fund, Yevhen Vember, stated on his Facebook page: “It turns out that, according to an oral order from the minister, the fund must transfer 378 million hryvnias—without a proper legal mechanism for this and without a clear target designation. So, to summarize: we are waiting for legal clarification on how to transfer the funds to the hospital’s treasury accounts and how the control over their use will be conducted.”

Vember assured that the fund is exploring alternative ways to spend the collected funds.

Tender for the reconstruction of Okhmatdyt

It’s worth noting that the “Nashi Groshi” project previously published a report stating that the company “Bud-Technology,” whose bid was the third most expensive at 307 million UAH, was chosen as the winner of the tender for repairing the ‘Okhmatdyt’ building. Later, during the “Okhmatdyt Reconstruction” briefing, the head of the Ministry of Health, Viktor Liashko, announced that the tender for ‘Okhmatdyt’s’ reconstruction would be conducted through ProZorro with the involvement of a supervisory board.

Lesia Karpenko

Tags: humanitarian aid okhmatdyt Ukraine