What was established
The Office of the Prosecutor General reports suspicions of embezzlement of budget funds during procurements for the military in the Poltava region. The suspects are three city council employees and the director of a private company. The case concerns the purchase of 70 satellite phones in 2023.
How the scheme worked
According to the investigation, the procurements were carried out without competition and the supplier was preselected. One of the specialists prepared a formal market analysis using only inflated offers. After the contract was signed, the company's director issued an invoice with false data about the alleged delivery, and another city council employee entered false information about receipt of the goods.
On the basis of the forged documents, the head of the department signed payment instructions, after which more than 13 million hryvnias were transferred to the company's account. By supplying phones from another supplier at a significantly lower price, the scheme participants appropriated the difference. The local budget suffered losses of more than 5 million hryvnias.
Other suspicions
Separately, authorities report a group of officials from a Ministry of Defense supplier who are suspected of organizing VAT evasion totaling more than 35 million hryvnias.
