Director of Humanitarian Demining Center: Entire Process Must Be Controlled by One Body to Avoid Corruption

In Ukraine, there is an urgent need to strengthen oversight of humanitarian demining to prevent potential corruption by operators, according to the Humanitarian Demining Center (HDC) and its director, Volodymyr Baida. He pointed out that the lack of coordination and understanding of all efforts within a single vertical is a systemic problem that the Center has consistently highlighted, supported by a comprehensive study conducted by Tony Blair's institute last year.

According to Baida, approximately 13 state institutions are currently involved in organizing the mine action sector in Ukraine, complicating quality control of operators' work. The HDC has managed to save hundreds of millions of hryvnias from the state budget through the successful implementation of a compensation program for farmers for demining. This has reduced the cost of demining significantly—from $22-30 to just 13 cents per square meter.

At the same time, the director of the HDC emphasized the need to modernize legislation and provide oversight functions to prevent abuses during demining operations. "We have repeatedly appealed to government authorities with the initiative to make the necessary legislative changes. Ensuring a completely transparent humanitarian demining process—from identifying contaminated areas, to their clearance, to issuing certificates—can only be achieved when one vertical controls it," he stressed.

Baida also noted that all mechanisms used by the Center in humanitarian demining have passed all necessary checks by budgetary control authorities, including inspections by law enforcement agencies, the Accounting Chamber, and the State Audit Office. "The Center must implement the quality control function granted to it by law. We have created a unit within our staff that can engage in quality control and are undergoing the accreditation process for specialists. We hope that in a few months we will be able to strengthen the sector with independent quality control of operators' work, so we can finally go out and verify operations in the fields," he added.

Volodymyr Baida also pointed out that the absence of independent control functions, coordination, and understanding of humanitarian demining processes among all participants leads to criminal proceedings against certain operators. "Since the beginning of its activities, the launch of the compensation program, and the opening of criminal proceedings, the Humanitarian Demining Center has provided all necessary documents for comprehensive investigations and cooperates with law enforcement agencies to help objectively establish all circumstances within the framework of the criminal proceedings," emphasized the HDC.

The Center also called on humanitarian demining operators, law enforcement, and regulatory bodies to comprehensively highlight any episodes and cases in this field to prevent citizens from neglecting mine safety rules. "Individual manifestations of dishonesty should not affect the dozens of operators who diligently and legally carry out their assigned tasks," concluded the HDC.

It is worth noting that an international competition for engineering solutions, the Minesight Innovation Challenge, is set to launch in Ukraine, aimed at developing a compact mechanized excavation system for humanitarian demining.

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