Ukraine needs to simplify the bureaucracy in the work and accounting of charitable foundations and volunteers, said Artem Honcharenko, president of the Reconstruction and Development of Ukraine Foundation, a volunteer.
“I am in favor of simplifying the procedure for transferring charitable aid to recipients, simplifying the bureaucracy in the work of charitable foundations and volunteers. I know from my own experience how much time is spent on paperwork and bureaucracy. For example, a person who is at “zero” on the frontline has to write us an application, according to which we have to collect everything and give him or her a certificate to sign that he or she has received our help. I have an example when a person for whom we were collecting aid died while we were filling out all the paperwork,” he said during a roundtable discussion at the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Thursday.
Goncharenko noted that one way to simplify the processing of aid provided by charities and volunteers is to fill out and submit documents online.
“We need to simplify the procedure. I am speaking here on behalf of all the foundations, I think they support me in this: we need to simplify this system or allow us to fill it out online. Then people will be able to fill it out, and we will be able to ship them the aid,” he said.
Honcharenko also emphasized the need to regulate the issue of VAT taxation of goods purchased and delivered by charitable foundations and volunteers.
“We need to remove VAT from these goods. When we imported the first mobile hospital, it cost EUR 230 thousand, and the VAT amounted to another EUR 50 thousand,” he said.
In his turn, Serhiy Petkov, Doctor of Law, military officer, emphasized the need to use online tools in the process of receiving social assistance and payments, in particular for veterans and military personnel.
At the same time, he noted that in Ukraine, “for some reason, issues are resolved at the level of bylaws, and this should not be the case in a democratic state governed by the rule of law, legislation should be codified.”
“All these bylaws, various resolutions, instructions, letters, explanations, etc. should become a thing of the past, we need to move away from manual control and move to a normal democratic legal life so that everything happens in accordance with the law,” he said.
For his part, Doctor of Law, professor, volunteer Ihor Kopotun noted that there is no need to develop a separate regulatory framework for social protection of military personnel and veterans.
“I think we don’t need to invent anything. Today, the social protection of servicemen or any person must meet the requirements of the current legislation, the social protection provided by the laws. Everyone should be equal before the law, and the laws that have already been adopted today should be implemented,” he said.
bureaucracy, CHARITY, GONCHARENKO, mobile hospital, OPINION, Petkov, VOLUNTEERS, Копотун
