Mykolaiv rejects complaint about misappropriation of funds for water intake repair

A court in Mykolaiv dismissed a complaint filed by an NGO against police inaction regarding possible misappropriation of budget funds. It is a case of suspected corruption during the reconstruction of a water intake.

This was reported by the Center for Public Investigations.

The chairman of the board of the NGO "Public Control Platform" filed a complaint against the inaction of investigators of the Mykolaiv Main Department of the National Police, who allegedly failed to register a possible criminal offense in the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations.

According to the organization, in the course of their activities, they discovered a possible scheme of misappropriation of more than UAH 10.7 million during the reconstruction of the Pavlohrad water intake in Dnipropetrovska oblast.

According to the applicant's version, officials of the Pavlohrad City Council's Department of Utilities and Construction, together with employees of SPETSBUDMONTAZH-21, allegedly overstated the cost of construction materials and works in order to distribute "extra" money among the persons involved.

Currently, there is no information on the registration of this information in the URPTI. In its decision, the court noted that the failure to enter the information can be appealed by law, and investigators are obliged to enter the data into the register and provide the applicant with an extract within 24 hours of receiving the application.

However, the judge found that the complaint contained only assumptions and no specific facts or evidence to justify the initiation of an investigation, so the complaint was dismissed.

According to the DREAM system, 311 million hryvnias were planned for the reconstruction of the first stage of the Pavlohrad water intake. Pavlohrad currently receives water from a single water pipeline, the Dnipro-Western Donbas, from the Dnipro River, which is over 78 km long and runs through five pumping stations. Any damage to the pipeline could cut off the city's water supply. The water pipeline has been in operation since 1988, with no major repairs, only routine and emergency repairs.

At the same time, the court ordered Mykolaiv police to launch an investigation into price gouging during the reconstruction of the water pipeline. According to the NGO, the management of the contractor Odesaspetsenergo overestimated the cost of materials during the work on Sadova and Naberezhna streets in Mykolaiv, which caused damage to the budget.

Анна Бальчінос