Searches in Kyiv City State Administration Units: Prosecutors Serve Suspicions, Cases Involve Millions of Hryvnias

Dozens of suspects in just a few days.

In recent days, searches have resumed in structures of the Kyiv City State Administration, officials are being served suspicions of theft, including as part of conspiracies, and open cases involve sums running into the nine figures.

At the same time, the focus is not only on the largest infrastructure projects or scandalous developers. Schemes are being uncovered that permeate most of the capital’s daily life, from the repair of kindergartens and school furniture to the repair of crossings and garbage removal.

Start of investigations 

The first “mass” searches in the KSA departments began in May this year, when the prosecutor’s office reported suspicions against seven officials of the Department of Social Policy. The investigation established that the purchase of personal hygiene products at inflated prices caused damage to the budget of UAH 13.5 million.

Searches were also conducted in a case of illegal construction on the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, as well as at Kievstroyreconstruktsiya, where earlier one of the employees was caught embezzling UAH 4.8 million for anti-landslide works that were in fact not carried out.

In total, in May 2021, law enforcement agencies conducted several dozen searches at municipal enterprises and KSA departments, as well as at associates of Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko.

Later, searches resumed in July, but gained new momentum in recent days.

New investigations

In the proceedings on theft of UAH 33 million on purchases of software for the municipal enterprise Kyiv Institute of Land Relations, suspicions were served on the former deputy director of the institute and the director of a private company.

In the case of embezzlement of UAH 6.9 million on purchases of unnecessary equipment for the municipal enterprise Sportivny Interes, the enterprise’s deputy director was served with suspicion. It concerns official negligence that led to the unjustified waste of city funds.

At the same time, searches were conducted in a case of theft of UAH 250 million under the Kyiv housing stock major repair program. According to investigators, these funds were transferred to affiliated persons by a group of officials, including heads of the KSA Department of Construction and Housing Provision, the municipal enterprise Spetszhilfond, and the municipal enterprise “Zhilinveststroy-UKB.

In the Podilskyi Bridge case, a suspicion was reported to the first deputy head of the municipal enterprise Directorate for Construction of Road and Transport Facilities of Kyiv and to the head of the general contracting organization.

Also, an investigation into the purchase of school furniture was carried out. A suspicion was reported against the head of a contracting organization for misappropriating more than UAH 450 thousand.

According to the investigation, school chairs purchased for 20 educational institutions of Pechersk District do not meet technical requirements, and their cost is overstated by more than twofold. Moreover, the acceptance-transfer act does not even contain the surname of the official of the district state administration who accepted these chairs.

In the case of repairing underground crossings in Desnianskyi District, a suspicion was reported to the head of the Directorate for Road Repair and Maintenance of Desnianskyi District over the misappropriation of budget funds.

It was established that, although the repair works in the underground crossings were carried out extremely poorly, not in full, and by a company with signs of fictitiousness. Experts estimated losses to the local budget at more than UAH 250 thousand.