Poltava region road repair corruption scheme: investigation completed

On Nov. 4, 2022, NABU and SAPO completed the investigation of the director of the state-owned road maintenance enterprise in the Poltava region, who is suspected of abusing his official position and misusing UAH 29 million from the state road fund*. The case file was disclosed to the defense for perusal. The official's actions fall under Part 2 Art. 210 and Part 2 Art. 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

As established, in 2018, the official, contrary to the lawful procedure, in the absence of relevant funding and without proper justification, organized the purchase of services for the development of design and estimate documentation for the capital repair of three public highways in the Poltava region.

The project was ordered from four interlinked private companies, selected in advance by the suspect, which did not have any relevant experience and specialists. In order to conceal the corruption scheme and give it the appearance of legality, the official single-handedly pided the subject of procurement into 22 parts. This allowed him to purchase the services from pre-determined companies without announcing open tenders and using the threshold procurement procedure.

*A total of UAH 29 million was spent from the budget. The examination carried out as part of the investigation established an overestimation of the cost of design and estimate documentation by more than UAH 5.52 million.

In September 2022, the official was notified of suspicion.

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