Investigation in the case of embezzlement in the renovation of a museum in Kherson region has expired

The renovation of the Vysokopil Museum became the subject of an investigation because of the "phantom robots" for which the state paid hundreds of thousands of hryvnias. While prosecutors were trying to punish the engineer for negligence, the judicial bureaucracy and the timing of the investigation played into his hands.

This is evidenced by the ruling of the Kherson Court of Appeal.

The court reviewed the case against a technical supervision engineer suspected of negligence during the repair of the Vysokopil Museum of Local Lore, which was damaged as a result of Russia's armed aggression. The works were worth almost 1.9 million hryvnias, financed from the budget.

According to the investigation, the suspect was responsible for technical supervision of the repairs. He was supposed to control the scope, quality, and compliance of the work performed with the design and estimate documentation, as well as respond to any deviations.

However, as the investigation found, the engineer did not properly fulfill his duties: he did not check the actual amount of work and signed the certificate of acceptance of construction work performed in December 2023. The total amount under this act was UAH 1.8 million.

Subsequently, a forensic construction and technical examination found that some of the work had not actually been completed. As a result, the contractor was unjustifiably paid UAH 286,786 of budget funds. The investigation considers this amount to be the damage caused to the museum.

The suspect's actions were classified as official negligence. The court also took into account other corruption-related criminal proceedings against him.

Initially, the investigating judge refused to grant bail. The prosecutor appealed this decision, insisting that there were risks. The Court of Appeal agreed with the prosecution's arguments, recognizing that the risks did exist and that the suspicion was reasonable. The court also noted that the decision of the first instance was unmotivated and did not take into account all the circumstances of the case.

However, despite this, the panel of judges did not apply bail. The reason for this was the expiration of the pre-trial investigation, within which the issue of a preventive measure can be decided. Therefore, the court overturned the previous ruling, but made a new decision to deny the investigator's request.

As Intent wrote, the case concerns construction and repair works, the contract for which was concluded on December 21, 2023, by the municipal institution "Vysokopilskyi Museum of Local Lore" with LLC "Construction and Restoration". In the Kherson region, the company received contracts without competition for emergency repair work on residential buildings damaged by the war, in particular in the Vysokopilska and Velyko Oleksandrivska communities.

Анна Бальчінос