The website of the Ministry of Environmental Protection was available less than 43% of the time in October 2022 alone, i.e. it was down 57% of the time.
This was announced by the ecological non-governmental organization Save Dnipro on its Facebook page. It is noted that the approximate calculations were made according to the Oh Dear site monitoring system, which ecoactivists use for their projects.
"The current practice of the executive authorities does not take into account the limited access of the public to official sources of information due to constant problems with the operation of the sites and the lack of a stable connection, electricity. Because of this, there is a violation of the right of every citizen to access information and the right of the public to participate in the process of public discussions, which is guaranteed by a number of international and Ukrainian normative legal acts, in particular, the Aarhus Convention and the Law of Ukraine "On Access to Information", members of Save Dnipro note.
In their opinion, this led to non-compliance with the deadlines for public discussion of draft laws and by-laws, and, as a result, to the adoption by the Cabinet of Ministers of the scandalous Resolution No. 272 "On Approval of the Procedure for the Introduction of Mandatory Automated Pollutant Emission Control Systems." They note that this is just one case out of many.
"Due to the adopted Resolution: the state will not receive eco-taxes to the budget; control bodies will not have constant control over normative and/or salvo emissions; Ukrainians will not have access to objective data about emissions of enterprises and will continue to lose their health due to polluted atmospheric air" said in the message.
According to ecoactivists, if the website of the Ministry of Environment worked without technical malfunctions, an interested and responsible public would have free access to normative legal acts and their projects, could make proposals for their improvement and participate in public discussions, which they have every right to do.
"So, when will the Ministry of Environment website stop going on indefinite leave and finally be up and running?" summarize the activists.
As EcoPolitic reported earlier, from February to March 2023, the website of the Ministry of Environment did not work for almost a month. On the first day of the website failure, February 23, the Mindovkill press service cited a cyber attack as the reason. The work of the resource was promised to resume within a week. However, the work lasted almost 3 weeks.
The Ministry did not give an explanation for the reason for the delay in the restoration, did not name those responsible for the cyber attack. In addition, after February 23, the press service never reported on the current state of solving the problem. It is worth noting that the representatives of the Ministry have repeatedly stated that digitalization, despite everything, remains an unchanged priority of the Ministry of Environment.
In addition, the strengthening of digitalization is one of the main tools of the State Anti-Corruption Program for 2023-2025, which was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine at the meeting on March 14.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that the official website of the Ministry of Environment Protection and Natural Resources was down for 16 days as of Friday, March 10.
The official website of the Ministry of Environment stopped working again on March 14 after it was restored for only a few hours. The site was down for 20 days from February 23.
