Embezzlement in the construction of a kindergarten revealed in Kherson

In Kherson, law enforcement officers are checking embezzlement during the construction of a kindergarten building. The money was transferred to the contractor for work that the contractor did not perform.

This was reported by Anti-Corruption Dimension.

According to the investigation, officials of the Capital Construction Department of the Kherson City Council and the contractor Mobile Mechanized Column #132 LLC embezzled budget funds. The case concerns the construction of a kindergarten on the territory of secondary school No. 5 of the Kherson City Council.

At the end of 2021, the contractor received more than UAH 5.6 million under the contract for additional work. According to Prozorro, the expected cost of the work was UAH 6.94 million. The contract was signed on December 22, 2021, and on December 30, funds were transferred from the local budget to the contractor.

Law enforcement officers drew attention to the timing of the work: initially, the construction was planned to be completed by December 31, 2021. At the end of December, the parties signed an additional agreement reducing the total contract amount to UAH 5.9 million and extending the deadline to December 31, 2022, citing adverse weather conditions and a letter from the contractor stating that construction was impossible in winter.

Nevertheless, UAH 5.6 million was paid as late as December 30, 2021, at the end of the budget year, for work that was allegedly performed over several days in difficult conditions, when the contractor himself officially declared that construction work was impossible.

The prosecutor's office also found that at the time of the inspection, there were no documents confirming the completion of the work: certificates of completion, construction control logs, executive documentation, and other mandatory papers. Some of the documents could not be provided due to damage to the administrative building during shelling in 2022 and 2024.

According to the investigation, payment could have been made for work that was not actually performed. This, according to law enforcement, may indicate an unjustified transfer of funds from the local budget and the embezzlement of almost UAH 5.7 million.

The court granted the investigators permission to seize the original contracts, design estimates, and executive documentation to find out all the details of the case. The investigation is being conducted under the article on embezzlement of budget funds on a particularly large scale.

Earlier, Kherson authorities allocated more than half a billion hryvnias to repair the shelters, but most of them remain closed or not ready for use. The work was carried out by companies without proper construction experience and resources, linked to Kherson MVA officials.

Анна Бальчінос