Engineer from Kherson region suspected of embezzling 2 million on repairs

Law enforcement officials in Kherson region have officially served a notice of suspicion to a resident of Dnipropetrovs'k region on charges of official negligence. According to the Kherson Regional Prosecutor's Office, the official's actions fall under Part 2 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provides for liability for improper performance of duties that caused grave consequences.

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

Under the procedural supervision of the Kherson Regional Prosecutor's Office, a resident of Dnipropetrovs'k region was served a notice of suspicion of official negligence. The investigation established that in September 2018, one of the departments of the Kherson Regional State Administration engaged the suspect as a technical supervision engineer to oversee the repair of a road within the Kherson district. According to the agreement, the specialist was supposed to carefully check the quality of materials, the amount of work performed, and the compliance of costs with project documentation.

However, the engineer ignored his direct responsibilities and failed to properly check the actual state of the repair. He signed acceptance certificates that contained false information about the materials used and their cost. This inaction resulted in the transfer of almost UAH 2 million of budget funds to the contractor's account without any grounds.

Currently, investigators of the Kherson region police continue the pre-trial investigation, and law enforcement officers are deciding on a measure of restraint against the man. It is worth recalling that according to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.

Also, thanks to the evidence base of the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor's Office of Kherson region, the court convicted a local resident for collaborating with the occupiers. The man was found guilty of collaboration under Part 7 of Art. 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provides for liability for voluntarily holding positions in illegal law enforcement agencies established in the temporarily occupied territory.

The traitor was sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property. The investigation proved that the resident of Kherson region voluntarily cooperated with the invaders and headed an illegally created institution - the so-called 'State Autonomous Institution 'Black Sea Biosphere Reserve'. The enemy deployed this fake structure on the basis of the seized Black Sea Biosphere Reserve of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

As the 'director', the convict performed organizational, administrative and law enforcement functions in the interests of the occupation authorities, in fact ensuring the operation of the stolen reserve under the flag of the Russian Federation.

Катерина Глушко