NABU named the top-10 corruption risks in medical and social expert commissions regarding disability determination.

The National Agency for Preventing Corruption conducted an analysis of recommendations to avoid corruption risks in the work of medical and social expert commissions (MSEC). It turned out that most of the proposed measures have not yet been implemented. This is reported by NABU's press service.

Corruption risks of MSEC regarding disability determination:

• mediation of officials of state bodies in corrupt agreements with the head and/or members of MSEC;
• joint actions of the head and/or members of different MSEC for the purpose of illegal enrichment;
• deception of citizens without official status for the purpose of corrupt agreements with the head and/or members of MSEC;
• quick sending of referrals and necessary documents to MSEC in exchange for receiving illegal benefits;
• preparation of fake documents without the support of MSEC decisions;
• disability 'turnkey';
• use of paper document flow for corrupt abuses of MSEC;
• registration of MSEC documents by conscripts for illegal border crossing;
• communication among MSEC doctors to demand illegal benefits from citizens.

The updated study is based on an analysis of regulatory legal acts, draft laws, international experience, and court decisions. Important information was also obtained from specialists, patients, and medical institutions. All this confirmed that procedures in MSEC are complex, opaque, and conducive to corruption, - reports NABU's press service.

Proposed assessment mechanism, suggested by NABU:

• deadline for assessment, criteria for determining stages and grounds for repeated/extraordinary assessments;
• clear requirements for the composition of expert teams, automatic formation of teams using a unified system;
• decision-making procedure for evaluations;
• restrictions for members of expert teams to prevent conflicts of interest;
• information and communication system in the healthcare sector and the procedure for accessing information;
• functions of expert teams.

Recall that the scandal with MSECs began on October 4, when the head of the Khmelnytsky Oblast MSEC, Tetiana Krupa, and her son were caught in illegal enrichment. They had almost 6 million dollars in cash. On October 7, Tetiana Krupa was detained with the possibility of bail exceeding 500 million hryvnias.

The government approved a plan to combat corruption in MSEC and submitted a draft law for their liquidation. On November 20, the Verkhovna Rada approved this draft law in the first reading. President Zelensky also signed a law to improve MSEC. The Ministry of Health will check officials for fictitious disabilities.