Zelensky signs a decree to liquidate medical investigative commissions over a corruption scandal

President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree on October 22 to liquidate medical examination committees for determining the severity of disabilities by December 31.

The decree was released after a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), where violations at medical examination commissions and the fraudulent acquisition of disability status by officials through corruption schemes were discussed on October 22.

Obtaining disability status through medical examiner boards makes it possible to avoid military service and receive a higher pension, among other social benefits.

According to the decree, working groups will be set up to verify disability certificates issued by medical examination committees within three months. If violations are found, the certificates must be destroyed.

From October 22, pension payments for civil servants with disabilities must be checked within a week. A new bill will be drafted within a month to change the system for calculating pension payments to civil servants, the decree said.

A plan must also be developed within two weeks to digitize all phases of the medical examination committee. Meanwhile, the procedure for former civil servants with disabilities crossing state lines will be reviewed within a month.

After the NSDC meeting, Vasyl Maliuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), said the SBU had exposed corruption schemes at medical examiner committees in 2024, resulting in the cancellation of 4,106 fake certificates of disability status.

Maliuk added that 64 medical examiner committee officials have been accused of committing crimes, while another nine suspects have been convicted.

In Rivne, Mykolaiv, Khmelnytskyi and Kharkiv Oblasts, corruption schemes at medical investigative commissions linked to draft evasion have been reported.

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin resigned on October 22 following reports that prosecutors had unlawfully obtained disabled status.

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