On November 7, NABU and SAPO exposed the scheme of embezzlement of more than UAH 27 mln in the construction of a kindergarten in the suburbs of Kyiv. Five persons were served with charges. We are talking about a pre-school in the village of Hatne. The relevant tenders were tracked by villagers, who later, together with the DOZORRO community and lawyers of BiHUS.Info, contacted the NABU.
This story is a great example of how important open data, active public control, and independent anti-corruption authorities are in fighting corruption. Let us tell you more about it.
In 2018, a local activist left feedback about a violation on the DOZORRO portal. The CSO “Trypilskyi Krai” from the community began to work on this story. Olha Nos, a specialist of the organization, found potential abuses in the procurement of design documentation and the construction of the kindergarten itself. In particular, related participants competed in the tender for construction, and the winner’s documents did not meet the requirements. By the way, the founder of both companies was the church rector.
Analysts contacted the State Audit Service, which confirmed the violations. However, the village council did not correct them. Instead, it increased the expenditures for kindergarten from UAH 68 million to UAH 192 million. Additional money was spent not on tenders, but under the negotiation procedure, signing contracts directly.
“Trypilskyi Krai” together with BiHUS.Info lawyers and local activists appealed to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Community residents were actively involved in the case, were interrogated as witnesses, and in 2020, detectives came with searches to the accountant and the head of the village council.
In general, during the investigation, the NABU found that the kindergarten was still unfinished, and the certificates of the services rendered were forged, in particular, prices were inflated. Another company was paid for services that it did not provide at all.
At present, the National Bureau served five participants with charges in the corruption scheme: the then head of the village council, an accountant, and three directors of enterprises. The case will be considered by the High Anti-Corruption Court.
The material was prepared with the support of the USAID/UK aid TAPAS Project/Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services.
