As part of its mandate under the Law of Ukraine “On Prevention of Corruption,” the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) uncovered several cases of abuse of office by officials that caused significant damage to the state budget. The NACP prepared substantiated findings, and law enforcement has already initiated pre-trial investigations into corruption offences.
The Main Investigation Department of the National Police of Ukraine is investigating possible abuses by officials of the Department of Housing and Utilities and the Fuel and Energy Complex of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration (RMA) and the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Donetsk RMA.
In the first case, the NACP found that officials, in collusion with suppliers, purchased fortification structures at inflated prices, causing more than UAH 2.7 million in budget losses.
In the second case, officials of the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Donetsk RMA used a similar scheme to purchase vehicles, resulting in the misappropriation of over UAH 53.6 million in budget funds.
Officials of both RMAs are suspected of committing an offence under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (misappropriation, embezzlement or seizure of property through abuse of office).
In addition, NACP prepared and sent two substantiated findings to the Main Investigation Department of the National Police regarding officials of a state institution of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. They allegedly misappropriated UAH 2.6 million in material and technical assistance and purchased medical and disinfection equipment at inflated prices, causing over UAH 24 million in budget losses. Their actions have been preliminarily classified under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
As a reminder, a court recently fined a Kyiv City State Administration official for refusing to provide information to the NACP.
