The anti-corruption organization Transparency International Ukraine and the Institute of Legislative Ideas have expressed their readiness to work together with the Ministry of Education on improving compensation mechanisms for the housing of Ukrainians destroyed or damaged during the war with Russia. Organizations wrote on their Facebook pages about their proposals and assessment of the government bill No. 7198.

In particular, Transparency positively evaluated the draft law and its provisions, noting that they had already discussed the issue of its improvement with the Ministry of Reconstruction and other interested expert organizations.

“If at first the state planned to build housing on its own and hand it over to the victims, now this utopian idea has been abandoned. The current draft law includes three methods of compensation: a housing certificate that will be used to pay for housing – for owners of destroyed apartments and houses; financing for the construction of a private house – for the owners of destroyed buildings, the performance of construction works and the provision of building materials for the owners of damaged apartments.

You can use the housing certificate within 5 years from the date of receipt. It cannot be given away or sold. Similarly, for 5 years, it will not be possible to sell or gift the housing itself, which was purchased under the certificate,” the message reads.

The draft law was also evaluated by the Institute of Legislative Ideas. Here, we are ready to support the document in case of making a number of changes that will make corruption abuses impossible. In particular, it is about the need to create transparent compensation commissions. It is also necessary to establish in the bill a comprehensive list of persons who can receive compensation without the possibility of expanding the range of compensation recipients by the government at its own discretion. The organization considers it necessary to create more loyal conditions for the owners of destroyed housing.

“It is worth canceling or minimizing restrictions on the owner’s right to freely dispose of housing purchased at the expense of compensation. After all, this is his constitutional right,” the report says.

It is also proposed to provide for the possibility to choose the method of compensation for destroyed housing – a housing certificate or monetary compensation for all categories of recipients (owners of apartments and residential buildings). As well as the possibility for recipients to dispose of monetary compensation not only for the purchase or construction of housing, but also for its arrangement, the possibility of using the remaining funds after the purchase of housing.

“We support the need to regulate at the legal level the mechanism of compensation for destroyed and damaged housing, taking into account our proposals. We agreed on cooperation with the Ministry of Reconstruction on the further improvement of the mechanism of compensation, including at the stage of development of by-laws,” the Institute of Legislation said in a statement.

As a reminder, the Verkhovna Rada is currently considering draft law 7198 “On compensation for damage and destruction of certain categories of immovable property as a result of hostilities, acts of terrorism, sabotage caused by the military aggression of the Russian Federation.” The document was adopted as a basis on April 1, 2022, and it is now undergoing a second reading in the parliament.