The NACP conducted a strategic analysis on corruption risks in the activities of military medical commissions (MMCs) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) pursuant to paragraph 5 of the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine as of 30.08.2023 "On Military Medical Expertise in the Armed Forces of Ukraine", enacted by the Decree of the President of Ukraine as of 12.09.2023 No. 576/2023.
The NACP experts identified the sources and identified the TOP-20 most common corruption risks in the activities of the AFU MMC. These are:
- imperfection of legal regulation of the activities of the MMCs;
- abuses during the formation of the staff of the regular MMCs and the appointment of the head of the Central Military Medical Commission due to the lack of clarity in legal regulation;
- non-transparent procedure for determining the municipal or state-owned health care institution, which can be used to establish the MMCs of territorial recruitment and social support centers;
- using the uncertainty of the term of the military medical examination to set up corruption schemes;
- extortion of unlawful benefits for taking into account all existing diseases and conditions during medical examinations;
- refusal to provide a referral for medical examination to persons who were mobilized into the Armed Forces without undergoing a military medical examination in order to obtain an undue advantage;
- involvement of military enlistment commission officials in corrupt schemes of illegal transportation of men of military age across the state border of Ukraine;
- corrupt arrangements when making a decision to grant a person a deferment from conscription for health reasons;
- abuses in establishing the causal link between injuries (wounds, contusions, mutilations) related to the defense of the homeland;
- the use of paperwork for corrupt practices by the MMCs.
The NACP developed recommendations to eliminate and/or minimize the identified corruption risks, which will strengthen the guarantees of observance of the rights of conscripts, servicemen and women by improving the activities of the MMCs.
Thus, the NACP, among other things, recommended that the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, together with the stakeholders, develop a new procedure for organizing and conducting military medical examinations and amend the existing regulations.
We emphasize that only an active position of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine in implementing the recommendations provided by the NACP will minimize the identified corruption risks, facilitate compliance with the requirements for incompatibility of corrupt practices in the activities of the MMCs and reduce the burden on law enforcement and judicial systems.
For more information on corruption risks and recommendations for their elimination, please read the study "Corruption Risks in the Activities of Military Medical Commissions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine" here.
