Employees of Kherson Education Department squandered budget on bonuses

Two former employees of Kherson's education department have been notified of suspicion of embezzling almost UAH 4 million of budget funds through the illegal accrual of bonuses during the occupation. One of them is wanted, the case is being investigated under an article that provides for up to 12 years in prison.

This was reported by the press service of the Kherson Regional Prosecutor's Office.

In Kherson, investigators exposed a possible scheme of embezzlement of budget funds that operated during the temporary occupation of the city in the summer of 2022.

As the investigation revealed, two employees of the local education department signed and issued documents on the basis of which employees of two educational institutions were awarded bonuses that they did not actually receive. The amount lost to the city budget amounted to almost UAH 3.9 million.

One of the defendants is currently outside the territory controlled by Ukraine, so she was served a notice of suspicion in absentia.

Two suspects - the deputy head of the department and the chief accountant - were served a notice of suspicion of committing a crime by prior conspiracy under Part 5 of Art. 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The sanction of the charged article provides for imprisonment for a term of 7 to 12 years, with possible deprivation of the right to hold office for up to three years and confiscation of property.

In March, the Kherson Court of Appeal announced the verdict against Tamara Storozhuk, a former accountant of the Chornobaiv village council. The investigation found that she had charged the council's employees with inflated bonuses and allowances, causing the community budget losses of almost half a million hryvnias.

Meanwhile, another corruption scheme was exposed in Odesa region. The head of one of the emergency medical care substations organized a scheme to illegally obtain money allocated by the state for salaries for doctors. To do this, he involved his subordinates - doctors, paramedics and a senior paramedic. Together, they drew up fictitious documents to misappropriate budget funds.

Анна Бальчінос