A large-scale corruption scheme was exposed in the leadership of the regional tax service department in Sumy. Officials tried to obtain millions of hryvnias through a fictitious tender for the repair of their own administrative building, which was damaged by the fall of a Russian Shahed suicide drone.
This was reported by the international detective agency Absolution.
How the scheme worked
After the drone explosion, the damaged roof of the administration building at 13 Illinska Street began to leak. Officials decided to take advantage of the situation and announced a tender for repairs worth 3.89 million hryvnias, the main goal of which was to get a “kickback.”.
The intermediary in the scheme was Vladislav Bugasov, an official of the State Migration Service, who was supposed to receive 20% of the contract value.
Two companies participated in the tender:
- “ Sumyslavbud ” is a real construction company.
- “ Industrial Trans Group ” is a fictitious enterprise that was actually controlled by Melnyk and Mazurenko.
The expected winner was Industrial Trans Group with a bid of 3.45 million hryvnias. The management planned to appropriate half of this money as a “kickback.”.
Fictitious contractor sold alcohol instead of repairs
The contractor who was supposed to perform the work turned out to be fictitious. “Industrial Trans Group”:
- It did not have production facilities or construction equipment.
- It did not have qualified employees.
- I didn't buy building materials, but beer, vodka, and food.
It is obvious that the real purpose of the tender was not to repair the building, but to launder budget funds.
After Olena Khotenko was removed from office due to other corruption scandals, her successor Svitlana Krasnyukova canceled the tender to avoid problems with law enforcement. This caused discontent among the participants in the scheme:
- The intermediary Bugasov was left without money.
- Mazurenko began to abuse alcohol because management demanded the return of “lost” funds.
Khotenko and Mazurenko remained in the tax office
Despite the corruption scandals, Olena Khotenko remains on the staff of the tax service, although over the past year she has been on leave for over 100 days, having worked only 50. The head of the State Tax Service, Natalia Kiyashko, signed off on her next leave.
Oleksiy Mazurenko has also returned to work, although he was previously fired for receiving fake disability. Officially, he is listed as an inspector, but in fact he occupies the office of the first deputy and performs the same functions as before.
