The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has completed a scheduled inspection of the organisation of work aimed at preventing and detecting corruption within the activities of the Chernivtsi City Council.
During the inspection, several deficiencies were identified in the activities of both the city council and its executive body, which negatively impacted the effectiveness of anti-corruption policy implementation:
Absence of an Authorised Unit for Prevention and Detection of Corruption (Authorised Unit)
There is a lack of systematic work regarding the prevention and detection of corruption within the Chernivtsi City Council because the body lacks an authorised unit — the corps of deputies did not support its creation in either 2021 or 2024.
According to legislation, such a unit is responsible, among other things, for implementing measures to detect conflicts of interest and facilitating their resolution. The NACP established six instances of such violations in the actions of heads of educational institutions subordinated to the Education Department of the Chernivtsi City Council, where their relatives were employed. The Agency issued six orders to the Head of the Education Department to conduct internal investigations into the identified violations of the Law of Ukraine “On Prevention of Corruption” (the Law). Notably, measures to resolve these conflicts of interest were only taken following the NACP's intervention.
Furthermore, under the Law, the authorised unit is tasked with organising work to assess corruption risks in the activities of the relevant body, preparing measures to eliminate them, and submitting corresponding proposals to the head of the body. Meanwhile, certain points of the Chernivtsi City Council’s Integrity Plan for 2025-2026 (the Plan) are largely declarative in nature:
- The point regarding the creation of an authorised unit with at least 3 staff members in February-March 2025 remained unimplemented as of December 2025;
- The point providing for connection to the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal (the Portal) by May 2025 was not fully executed as of December 2025: 143 legal entities under the management of the Chernivtsi City Council have not been connected to the Portal, despite the Plan covering the activities of the council, the executive committee, and enterprises, institutions, and organizations within its management sphere.
Satisfaction of Private Interests of Officials
This concerns risks regarding the satisfaction of private interests of officials from the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture during the collection of equity participation funds from several developers for infrastructure development. As a result of these actions, more than UAH 100 million intended for the creation and development of community infrastructure failed to reach the local budget of Chernivtsi. Facts of unjustified reductions in the amount of equity participation fees for certain business entities were also established. The NACP has forwarded the inspection materials to the Chernivtsi Regional Prosecutor's Office to initiate representative measures through legal proceedings.
Inefficient Use of Budgetary Funds in Procurement
Due to the lack of counterparty vetting by an authorised unit, the executive body of the Chernivtsi City Council purchased goods at inflated prices from a pre-determined supplier. In turn, this supplier purchased the relevant goods from business entities whose original tender bids had previously been rejected by the customer as non-compliant with documentation requirements. Notably, the cost of goods in the rejected bids was significantly lower, indicating the creation of artificial conditions for the overpayment of budgetary funds.
The NACP has submitted a substantiated conclusion regarding the abuse of official position (Article 191, Part 5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) by Chernivtsi City Council officials to the District Prosecutor's Office of Chernivtsi for further action. Within the framework of the pre-trial investigation, the NACP's findings were confirmed by expert examination.
Based on the inspection results, the NACP issued an order to the Mayor of Chernivtsi to rectify the violations of the Law identified during the inspection.
