Kyiv government audit to begin next week, led by Zelensky allies

Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk approved on
Sept. 17 an initiative by close presidential ally and MP Oleksandr Tkachenko to
conduct a state audit of the activity of Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko and city
administration bodies. “Forty-eight hours was enough for the new Cabinet head
to appoint a review that the previous government delayed for five years,”
Tkachenko said in a Facebook post. The audit will begin next week and will last
until Oct. 8, covering Klitschko’s term as mayor starting 2015, he said. “I
would really want for thieves who stole the money of Kyivans to sit behind
bars,” he said in a Facebook post on Sept. 16. In response that day, Klitschko
appealed to the State Audit Service to conduct its own financial audit of his
administration.

A group of 39 MPs – including 36 MPs from The People’s
Servant party loyal to President Zelensky – registered legislation with
parliament on Sept. 13 to hold early elections for Kyiv city head and city
council on Dec. 9. The bill also changes the process of appointing the Kyiv
city administration head, granting that authority to the president at the
request of the Cabinet. It also establishes new responsibilities for the post
that are “not compatible with any other post,” according to the bill, referring
to the current overlap of authority between the Kyiv city administration head
(currently appointed by the Cabinet at the president’s recommendation) and Kyiv
city head, who is elected.

Volodymyr Slonchak, a deputy head of the Kyiv City
Administration, was attacked and hospitalized, the pravda.com.ua news site
reported Sept. 18. Slonchak didn’t offer details of the attack, the news site
said, but local police confirmed it occurred. Besides serving as deputy head of
local governance, Slonchak is the head of the supervisory board of Kyivmiskbud,
a state enterprise that is a leading real estate developer.