In Mykolaiv region, payroll records "forgot 4.5 million

A routine audit conducted at the Education Department of the Horokhiv Village Council revealed signs of a criminal violation and turned into a full-fledged financial investigation.

This was reported by the Office of the Southern Office of the State Audit Service in Mykolaiv Oblast.

The audit revealed violations of the law and significant discrepancies in the documentation. Due to these financial abuses, more than 4.5 million budget funds were allegedly misappropriated or misspent. The main mechanisms of embezzlement included manipulation of payroll records and unjustified bonuses.

According to the auditors, the payroll records of teachers did not match the documents submitted to the bank, resulting in more than 4 million being paid to individual teachers and heads of educational institutions as bonuses that were not officially appointed and were not supported by relevant orders. The military administration was informed of the audit results, and an administrative report was drawn up against the accountant.

The audit materials were transferred to the Mykolaiv Regional Prosecutor 's Office and entered into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations. In November 2025, an indictment against the former head of the education department of the Horokhiv village council, who is charged with crimes under Part 5 of Article 191 and Part 4 of Article 185 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (misappropriation and theft on a large scale), was sent to the Snihuriv District Court. In addition, the Education Department filed a claim for compensation for material damage.

Earlier, the auditors checked a tender for a 600-million-dollar reconstruction of the Mykolaiv Regional Children's Clinical Hospital. A participant in the procedure was unreasonably disqualified for allegedly failing to provide the necessary information on the technical and quality characteristics of the procurement.

According to the protocol of consideration of tender proposals dated April 11, 2025, the customer stated that the participant did not provide a separate document with details on the prices of materials - name, quantity, transportation costs, warehouse costs and country of origin of goods. However, as the company assured, all the necessary information was contained in the tender proposal files in IMD format, which is part of the tender documentation requirements.

Катерина Глушко