Engineer released from liability for road theft in Pervomaisk

A court in Pervomaisk has released a technical supervision engineer from criminal liability. He was accused of falsifying acceptance certificates for repairs on city roads and misappropriation of budget funds.

This is evidenced by the ruling of the Pervomaiskyi City District Court of Mykolaiv Oblast.

The court considered in an open session a lawyer's motion to release from criminal liability an entrepreneur who had previously been charged with a number of criminal offenses related to abuse of office and forgery of documents during repair work on city roads.

According to the investigation, the defendant had a qualification certificate as a technical supervision engineer registered in the State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs. He provided public services for the control of construction works - both in the field of construction of architectural objects and during the repair of roads.

In 2015, the Pervomaisk City Council's Housing and Communal Services Department and Pervomaisk Road Repair and Construction Management Private Joint Stock Company signed a contract for the overhaul of the road surface. Later, the same department and the defendant actually entered into a contract for technical supervision of the works, legally formalized in September 2015.

During the repair work, the director of the contractor overstated the scope and cost of the work performed by entering false data into the acceptance certificates. The defendant, having the qualifications and authority of a technical supervision engineer, signed these documents, confirming the "scope and quality of work", although he knew that they were false.

The signed acts were submitted for signature to the head of the housing and communal services department, which allowed him to illegally receive budget funds allocated for the street repair. On the basis of these documents, the defendant received over UAH 13 thousand, which he disposed of at his own discretion.

The court emphasized that the defendant did not deny the facts stated in the motion and recognized the consequences of closing the criminal proceedings. It upheld his lawyer's motion to be released from criminal liability due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

As a result, the court decided to grant the motion and release the engineer from criminal liability. The criminal proceedings against him were closed.

In January, the court granted the investigation's motion to remove Oleh Nesterenko, head of the Construction and Repair Department of the South Ukrainian City Council, from his position on suspicion of embezzlement.

Анна Бальчінос