Six suspected of embezzling UAH 10 million in Ministry of Justice procurement

NABU and SAPO, in cooperation with the Security Service of Ukraine, uncovered a scheme to embezzle public funds during the procurement of services for the modernization of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine’s hardware and software complex (HSC).

Among the suspects are:

• a former State Secretary of the Ministry of Justice;
• the current head and deputy head of departments within the Ministry of Justice;
• the beneficial owner and two executives of a limited liability company.

According to the investigation, the LLC’s beneficial owner devised a plan under which Ministry officials initiated changes to the 2021 budget to allocate funds for the modernization of the HSC.

Subsequently, the LLC’s executives prepared the technical specifications for the modernization. To eliminate competitors, they included specific requirements tailored to the equipment the LLC intended to supply.

To artificially inflate the price of the services, commercial proposal requests were sent to the LLC and other pre-selected companies, which then returned “pre-agreed” quotes. These responses served as the basis for launching the procurement process.

To ensure that the tender formally took place, the scheme’s participants arranged for another company to submit a bid, which was intentionally made less attractive than that of the LLC.

As a result, the Ministry signed a contract with the LLC, paying an inflated price for the services and causing losses of over UAH 10 million to the state budget.

The actions of the suspects fall under Article 191, Part 5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. In addition, the head of one of the Ministry of Justice departments has been charged under Part 1 of Article 263 of the Criminal Code (unlawful handling of weapons or explosives).