Kyiv Boryspil Express e-ticket case: four suspicion notices served

On June 10, 2020, the Detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) under the procedural guidance of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor`s Office (SAPO) gave notices of suspicion to four persons. They are suspected of abuse of office in the procurement of services for the development a software for the sale of Kyiv Boryspil Express electronic tickets.

The suspects are:

• the director of a branch of Ukrzaliznytsia PJSC (at the time of committing a crime);
• the deputy director of a branch of Ukrzaliznytsia PJSC (at the time of committing a crime);
• the beneficial owner of a private company;
• the company's CEO.

The location of other possible participants in the crime is being established by NABU and SAPO.

The actions of all suspects are qualified under Part 3 Article 15, Part 5 Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The investigation revealed that in March 2018, when the system of selling e-tickets had already been functioning, the officials of Ukrzaliznytsia PJSC initiated the purchase of new software to organize the same process for Kyiv Boryspil Express. The officials forged documents to avoid open bidding. Contrary to the law, they organized the procurement by negotiation procedure.

According to the examination, Ukrzaliznytsia PJSC software for selling Kyiv Boryspil Express tickets actually duplicated the functionality of the already existing service https://booking.uz.gov.ua. Therefore, Ukrzaliznytsia could not receive additional income.

The service developer offered  Ukrzaliznytsia PJSC to add an option to the existing service for the sale of e-tickets for passenger trains free of charge. Instead, the officials of Ukrzaliznytsia PJSC purchased the service for UAH 10.4 million at another company, possibly related to former Ukrzaliznytsia officials.

According to the scheme, the selected supplier was supposed to outs the previous company providing IT services in a non-competitive manner due to the advantages provided by Ukrzaliznytsia officials in the conclusion of supply contracts. For this, the company had to implement at Ukrzaliznytsia PJSC its software product for the sale of Kyiv Boryspil Express tickets. Then, under the guise of modernization and according to the participants of crime plans, the software product should be implemented in all directions of passenger trains traffics.

After the start of the pre-trial investigation and a number of investigative actions, the executives of the Ukrzaliznytsia PJSC stopped paying for the software to the private company. UAH 10.4 million was left in Ukrzaliznytsia accounts.

NABU started the pre-trial investigation of the abovementioned facts in December 2018 on the basis of publications in media.

According to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine a person is considered not-guilty in commission of crime and cannot be a subject to criminal punishment, until he or she is found guilty by the court.

Photo rbc.ua