Auditors found overpayments for repairs funded by the EU

Specialists from the Southern Office of the State Audit Service of Ukraine audited three procurement transactions carried out by the Department of Education, Culture, Youth, and Sports of the Vyhoda Village Council in Odesa Oblast and identified violations that resulted in losses of 1 million hryvnias, most of which were funds from the Ukraine Facility.

This was reported by the press service of the Southern Office.

According to the auditors, during a follow-up inspection, they determined that the contractor had incorrectly applied the rate for installing equipment (a diesel generator), which resulted in an overstatement of the cost of the construction and installation work by 380,200 hryvnias.

Specifically, the contractor included in the cost of the work the labor costs of workers involved in operating specialized equipment, even though the contractor’s specialized equipment was leased and, under the terms of the lease agreements, such equipment is leased together with a crew (operator). Based on the recalculation, the overstatement of the cost of the construction and installation work performed amounted to nearly 618 thousand hryvnias.

In addition, when determining the cost of technical and design supervision services, the service provider included the single tax in the calculations and also accounted for the cost of technological equipment—namely, a diesel generator—whereas the amount allocated for these services is determined without taking into account the single tax or the cost of the technological equipment.

To date, these violations involving funds from the Ukraine Facility have been partially reimbursed in the amount of 8,400 hryvnias by transferring the funds to the State Budget of Ukraine. In total, the violations amounted to 1 million 60 thousand hryvnias, 982 thousand of which were funds from the Ukraine Facility.

The Ukraine Facility is a European Union financial support program for Ukraine totaling 50 billion euros for the period 2024–2027, which will be used to finance Ukraine’s state budget, stimulate investment, and provide technical support for the program’s implementation. The key objective of the Ukraine Facility mechanism is to ensure consistent and predictable financial support for Ukraine from the EU.

Кирило Бойко