Odesa region ranks third in Ukraine in terms of the number of convicted corrupt officials since the beginning of the Russian invasion

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Ukrainian courts have sentenced 6,877 corrupt officials, 115 of them in Odesa region.

According to this indicator, Odesa region ranks third in the country, according to analysts of the Opendatabot platform.

During this time, 2,500 verdicts were handed down annually, while in 2021, the Corruption Register was replenished with 6,870 entries. Since the beginning of the year, judges have already handed down 1,758 sentences to corrupt officials.

Lviv region ranked first, with 172 corrupt officials convicted, and Vinnytsia region ranked second, with 151 sentences. As for the South of Ukraine, Odesa region is the leader. Mykolaiv region has 20 such verdicts, and Kherson region has 11. Analysts believe that the number of records by region reflects the stable operation of the courts rather than the actual number and location of corrupt officials.

However, according to analysts, only 1.5% of cases resulted in imprisonment. In 98% of cases this year, criminals were fined, which is 1,714 sentences. Only 1.5% of the convicts were sentenced to imprisonment, which is 27 sentences.

Experts also believe that the number of convictions will continue to grow after the resumption of verification of officials' declarations.

Top articles used to convict corrupt officials this year:

• Offering, promising or giving an undue benefit to an official - 663 sentences or 37.7% of the total. This is a third less than last year.
• Late submission of declarations - 623 sentences or 35.4%. Compared to last year, such violations increased by 34 times. The NACP notes that data on late submission of declarations began to be received only in April 2024, when three declaration campaigns were completed at once. This is tens of thousands of declarations, and not all of them have been processed yet. This figure is likely to increase in the coming years and reach the level of the period before the full-scale invasion.
• Violation of requirements for prevention and settlement of conflicts of interest - 281 sentences or 16%. This is half as many as last year.

From the beginning of the full-scale war until the fall of 2023, officials' declarations were not verified. Officials were supposed to submit data for 2021 and 2022 by early 2023, and for the previous year by April 2024.

Кирило Бойко