"Ukroboronprom" caught in large-scale theft
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has uncovered a scheme to embezzle approximately 750 hryvnias from the state budget during a tender to purchase spare parts for a defense plant. The plant in question is the Zhytomyr Armored Plant, which repairs and modernizes old Soviet armored vehicles for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to the press service of the SBU, the department's counterintelligence revealed that plant officials, through fictitious companies, artificially inflated the cost of parts in order to receive more money from the State Defense Order.
“According to the preliminary investigation, last spring, officials of the state-owned enterprise, which is part of the structure of Ukroboronprom, announced competitive bidding for the purchase of parts totaling more than one and a half million hryvnia. The winner of the tender announced within the framework of the State Defense Order was a commercial structure from the Kyiv region.
According to preliminary investigation data, due to abuse by officials of the state-owned enterprise, the cost of procurement unjustifiably increased by 750 hryvnia of public funds. Law enforcement officers conducted searches at the state-owned enterprise and at the places of registration of fictitious companies participating in the tender transaction in the Kyiv region.
The originals of tender documentation, financial and accounting documents, seals of all economic entities involved in the transaction, specifications regarding the purchase and procedure for using parts, computer equipment, as well as almost 400 thousand hryvnia in national and foreign currency were seized,” the report says.
PolitNavigator previously reported that inspections of Ukrainian airborne assault troops revealed defects in nearly half of their equipment due to the use of substandard spare parts.
Ukroboronprom caught in large-scale thefts