In the Mykolaiv region, an engineer avoided prison after overcharging for repairs to State Emergency Service buildings

In the Mykolaiv region, a technical supervision engineer was put on trial for negligence that led to contractors being overpaid more than 453,000 hryvnias for repairs to State Emergency Service buildings. The man pleaded guilty, donated 100,000 hryvnias to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and avoided imprisonment.

The verdict was handed down on October 28, 2026, by the Domanivka District Court of Mykolaiv Oblast. 

According to the case file, the man worked as a technical supervision engineer and was responsible for verifying that the construction work complied with the project documentation, the contract, and the contractors’ reports.

The first case involved a major roof repair at the garage of the 12th State Fire and Rescue Unit in Voznesensk. In October 2024, the engineer signed a certificate of completion, even though the actual scope and quality of the repairs did not match what was specified in the documents. Specifically, the discrepancies concerned the area of the treated wooden structures and the thickness of the installed profiled sheet metal.

After the certificate was signed, 612,700 hryvnias were transferred to the contractor. According to the findings cited in the verdict, 235,700 hryvnias of this amount constituted payment for work that was not actually performed.

The second incident occurred in 2025 during the repair of the roofs of the administrative building and garage of the 14th Fire and Rescue Unit in Domanivka. The engineer again signed the certificates without verifying that the work performed matched the documentation. As a result, 777,800 hryvnias were transferred to the contractor, of which 218,000 hryvnias were in excess.

The total amount of losses to the state, as determined in the case, is 453,700 hryvnias.

On October 15, 2026, the defendant entered into a plea agreement with the prosecutor. He pleaded guilty to two counts of official negligence. The court also took into account that the man voluntarily donated 100,000 hryvnias to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The court sentenced him to one year of restricted liberty, with a one-year ban on holding certain positions. He was released from serving the main sentence on a one-year probationary period.

Ірина Глухова