Court in Mykolaiv puts an end to the case of official negligence

In Mykolaiv, a court has completed the trial of a case of alleged official negligence during the reconstruction of a school that had been underway since 2020. Despite the established violations, the accused was eventually released from liability.

This was reported by the Center for Public Investigations.

According to the investigation, the defendant in the case, who worked as a technical supervision engineer, was responsible for overseeing the reconstruction of the Voskresenska secondary school, where construction work was carried out in 2020.

According to the case file, he improperly checked the scope of work specified in the official acts, but nevertheless signed them, confirming their authenticity. Based on these documents, budget funds were transferred to the contractor.

The investigation estimated the damage at over UAH 276 thousand - these funds were paid for work that was not actually performed or was overstated. Law enforcers qualified the engineer's actions as official negligence, which caused serious consequences.

During the trial, the defendant filed a motion with the court to be released from liability due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. The prosecutor did not object, as more than five years had passed since the offense, and the crime itself was a minor one.

The court upheld this position. The decision stated that the defendant did not hide, evade the investigation, or commit new offenses, which allowed the application of the statute of limitations.

As a result, the criminal proceedings were closed. At the same time, the court emphasized that this does not negate the fact of the damages incurred and does not exclude the possibility of their recovery in a civil manner. The costs of conducting examinations in the case were borne by the state.

Earlier, the Center for Public Investigations reported that the reconstruction of this school began in 2017 and was accompanied by numerous tenders and risks.

Also in April, in Mykolaiv region, the court denied investigators access to samples from the shelter, which cost hundreds of thousands of hryvnias to repair. This is a case of possible abuse of office and overstatement of the scope of work performed.

Анна Бальчінос