Based on ESBU materials, city council officials who caused over UAH 3.4 million in damages to the community will stand trial

 Detectives of the Territorial Office of the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine in the Chernivtsi region have sent an indictment to court against the first deputy head of one of the city council departments and the deputy head of the public procurement department.

It was established that the officials abused their official positions during the procurement of road repair services. They artificially changed the classification of roadworks to bypass the funding restrictions mandated by legislation for the period of martial law.

The routine maintenance of one of the city's streets was documented as "landscaping services," which allowed the procurement to be carried out through a simplified procedure.

Furthermore, inflated prices for construction materials were included in the budget documentation. The cost of one cubic meter of crushed stone was set at nearly 2,000 UAH, while its market price was approximately 350 UAH.

Based on these calculations, a procurement was conducted via the Prozorro system. The sole participant, who offered an even higher price, was declared the winner. Despite this, a contract for over 18 million UAH was signed with them.

As a result of the procurement at prices nearly 6 times higher than market rates, the territorial community suffered damages exceeding 3.4 million UAH.

The actions of the officials are classified under Part 2 of Art. 28 and Part 2 of Art. 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (abuse of official position, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy, resulting in grave consequences).

Procedural oversight was carried out by the Chernivtsi Regional Prosecutor's Office.

In accordance with Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and shall not be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in a legal manner and established by a court verdict of guilty.