Six officials have been exposed in Kyiv, suspected of embezzling budget funds during the repairs of the Metro Bridge and Kyrylivska Street.
This is reported by Kyiv24
Schemes for Embezzling Funds in Capital Infrastructure Repairs
Employees of the National Police have detained six more officials from municipal enterprises in the capital, who are involved in two large-scale corruption schemes that embezzled over 2.5 million hryvnias. The actions of the suspects are related to the execution of repair works on city infrastructure facilities.
The first criminal scheme involves the heads of the Solomianskyi, Holosiivskyi, Sviatoshynskyi, and Desnianskyi district municipal road maintenance enterprises, as well as the contractor from the Darnytskyi municipal road maintenance enterprise. During the repair of Kyrylivska Street in the Podilskyi district, instead of engaging a commercial contractor as stipulated in the contract, employees from other municipal enterprises were used for the work. As a result of the illegal involvement of municipal workers, the amount of embezzled funds was estimated at over 1.6 million hryvnias.
“According to the developed plan, during the ongoing repair of Kyrylivska Street in the Podilskyi district, workers from other similar municipal enterprises were involved, although a contract had been signed with a commercial entity for this purpose. As a result of the unlawful involvement of employees from district municipal enterprises, the amount of embezzled funds totals over 1.6 million UAH,” the police reported.
Manipulations with Purchases for the Metro Bridge
The second uncovered scheme involved emergency repair works on the Metro Bridge. Officials purchased sand from controlled companies at inflated prices – 700 hryvnias per ton, while the average market price was about 200 hryvnias. This way, nearly one million hryvnias of budget funds were illegally utilized.
“The illicit funds were converted into cash and distributed among all involved parties. The deputy head of the capital construction management department of the Kyivavtodor was responsible for controlling these processes,” the statement said.
Law enforcement officers detained all participants of both criminal schemes simultaneously on July 25. All six suspects have been charged under Part 4 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – embezzlement, misappropriation of property, or acquisition of it through abuse of office. The sanction of this article provides for up to eight years of imprisonment with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in professional activities for up to three years, as well as confiscation of property.
Currently, the issue of choosing a preventive measure for the suspects and their suspension from office is being considered.