An accountant for a village council in the Odesa region was found guilty but not punished

The Dobroslavsky District Court in Odesa Oblast found the former chief accountant of the Troiandivsky Village Council guilty of official negligence but exempted her from punishment due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

This is stated in the court’s verdict dated July 13.

Initially, the woman was charged under two articles of the Criminal Code: misappropriation of another’s property through abuse of official position and forgery in the performance of official duties.

According to the investigation, in late December 2018, acting in collusion with the village head, she formalized a council session resolution granting him a bonus and financial assistance, even though the council members had not actually adopted this resolution. Based on this document, nearly 48,600 UAH in budget funds were allocated and paid to the village head in January–February 2019.

In December 2018, a council session was scheduled to take place at which council members were to approve the 2019 budget and consider the issue of salaries and bonuses for the village head and his deputy— the chief accountant.

The first attempt to hold the meeting on December 21 failed—the village head refused to begin it due to the presence of an outside farmer in the chamber. The council members were reconvened the following day, on Saturday.

According to witnesses, the session on December 22, 2018, was very tense. Of the 26 items on the agenda, most were approved without incident, including the purchase of housing for an orphaned child. But when it came to the leadership’s salaries and bonuses, arguments broke out.

The deputies did not agree to the proposed 180% bonus for the chairman. They proposed lower percentages—50%, then 100%—but none of the proposals received enough votes. According to several witnesses, at one point someone remarked that the decision had allegedly been made “excluding the bonus,” but this issue was never actually put to a vote.

The woman did not admit her guilt and called the criminal case fabricated.

According to her account, the decision was in fact adopted—with the exception of the clause regarding the bonus. To support her claim, she cited a remark by the head of the district state administration’s finance department, who was present at the session and, according to the accountant, confirmed that the decision had been adopted without the bonus.

The session was videotaped, and the court examined the footage in detail along with the deputies’ testimony.

The picture that emerged was as follows: after each attempt to amend the resolution and vote on it, there was no result—the resolution never received the required number of votes (at least 8 out of 14 deputies).

The court also noted that the head of the finance department, although present at the session as a guest, had no right to interfere with the voting procedure or announce the results—according to the rules of procedure, the council is chaired exclusively by the village head.

The court’s conclusion: the deputies did not adopt any part of the resolution.

As a result, the court found the woman guilty under Part 1 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (official negligence) but exempted her from punishment without imposing a sentence—due to the expiration of the seven-year statute of limitations.

Ірина Глухова