Svyrydenko explained millions in fees at KSE: She lectures, advises students, prepares new curriculum
The President of the Kyiv School of Economics, Tymofii Mylovanov, rejects the possibility of a conflict of interest in the situation with Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, who received and declared UAH 3,102,506 in fees for teaching at KSE in 2024.
This is stated in the material of the UP, Censor.NET reports.
Thus, according to the declarations, while 2 years ago Svyrydenko received a little less than UAH 852 thousand for KSE services, in 2024 the amount of fees increased to UAH 3.1 million.
The publication cites examples where the rector of the State University of Trade and Economics, Anatolii Mazaraki, received an hourly wage and fees of UAH 1 million 23 thousand for a year of full-time employment.
"That is, all three of them together received less in a year of work than Yulia Svyrydenko received in 7 months," the article says.
It is known that Svyrydenko received an annual income in the Cabinet of Ministers more than twice less than her teaching fee: 1 million 205 thousand hryvnias.
In a comment to journalists, the Deputy Prime Minister explained:
I have been teaching at the Private Institution "University "Kyiv School of Economics" since 2023 as a visiting professor (professor of practice)...
A separate agreement is concluded for each of the areas of educational and research programmes. In my case, these are "public administration", "economics" and "management" (the declaration actually lists three separate agreements - Ed.)
Within these areas, I teach a variety of topics in the courses "Strategic Management", "Economics of Post-War Reconstruction", "Macroeconomics", and "Research Seminar". The topics of the lectures include global shocks in the world economy, peculiarities of the martial law economy, management of reconstruction in Ukraine, etc. The lectures are held outside of working hours (late in the evening or on weekends) so as not to interfere with my duties at my main job at the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
In addition to my lecture load, I advise students on writing their diploma theses, conduct research and prepare materials to improve the curriculum. For example, I am involved in the preparation of a course on strategic management and am preparing to launch a programme on leadership in strategic innovation.
Thus, the newspaper writes, Svyrydenko lectures at several programmes, advises students and prepares a new curriculum for launch. And, importantly, she does all of this outside of her working hours.
"I was a bit shocked when I found out how much we pay Yulia Anatoliivna. I mean, 100 thousand a month, I understand. But I did not expect this myself. But we are a private institution with a budget somewhere around $50 million a year. If the university management decided that Svyrydenko should be paid that much, then it must be so. Although we are now conducting an internal investigation into whether it was the right decision. We have an internal document that defines the level of remuneration for teachers, and it turned out that current ministers can indeed be paid such money. They were equated to the level of Nobel laureates and other super famous people," said KSE President Timofii Mylovanov.
KSE provided journalists with the document "KSE Policy on Faculty Remuneration" dated 20 April 2023 and signed by KSE University Rector Timofii Brik.
According to the document, the heads of government and business structures are divided into two categories and can receive from 80 to 120 thousand hryvnias per month if they have significant domestic experience and recognition, and up to 240 thousand if they can pass on serious international experience.
"That is, the payment of 440 thousand to Svyrydenko under three parallel contracts should not have violated the formal internal procedures of the KSE. Whether this is an effective use of donor funds by the university is up to the donors themselves," the author notes.
Conflict of interest
In his commentary, Timofii Mylovanov rejected the possibility of a formal conflict of interest.
"Legally, everything is very seriously divided. This was back in the days when I was appointed to the supervisory board of the National Bank under Poroshenko, and Hontareva was teaching at the KSE. And back then, we made sure that I had no legal or actual influence on Ukrainian organisations - the university and NGOs - I run American organisations. And in Ukraine, the university does not depend on me in any way, and work with government agencies is done through the NGO, in which I also have no position. So, maybe not politically, but legally we have a very strong position," he said.
The Ministry of Economy, at the request of the publication, said that the NGO "KSE Institute", an analytical unit of the structure, is a recipient and implementer of the international technical assistance (ITA) project "Support to Ukraine in Recovery and Rehabilitation", where Svyrydenko's department is the beneficiary.
Mylovanov had requested this grant before Svyrydenko was appointed to the government, but it has been implemented since 2022, during Yulia Svyrydenko's term.
The ITA project is worth almost a million euros.
In late 2023, according to journalists, the Cabinet of Ministers launched a major $150 million project with American partners, where the NGO "KSE Institute" is one of the implementers and the Ministry of Economy is one of the beneficiaries.
"As can be seen from the above, Yulia Svyrydenko and Timofii Mylovanov are not only friends. There is also a lot of money circulating between their structures.
Although Mylovanov himself complains in an interview with UP that working with the government is not only unpleasant because of the sometimes rude manner of behaviour of lower-level government officials, it is also risky for the KSE," the author of the article noted.
The journalists believe that it is the NACP that should find out whether there is a conflict of interest in this case.
Earlier it was reported that the Vice Prime Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yulia Svyrydenko received and declared UAH 3,102,506 in fees for teaching at the Kyiv School of Economics in 2024.
