Family Scheme: How Family Contracting Businesses Do Business in Odesa Oblast

An investigation by the CPR showed that the families of the leaders of the Oknya village council receive significant profits from budget contracts. According to the declarations in the NACP register, local officials and related entrepreneurs regularly enter into contracts with institutions subordinate to the village council.

This is stated in the material of the Center for Public Investigations.

The information became public after the SBU detained the head of the council , Oleh Belous, on November 11 on suspicion of taking a bribe. According to the investigation, he demanded 50 thousand hryvnias from an entrepreneur for avoiding court enforcement of land lease debts. The court imposed on Belous a pre-trial restraint in the form of detention with the possibility of bail of UAH 500,000.

Photo: Oknianske village head during his detention. Photo: SBU Office in Odesa region

The council secretary, Olena Artiomova, is temporarily acting as the head of the council. However, her declaration also indicates family ties in budget contracts. Prior to her appointment as secretary, she supplied food to local educational institutions, and after her election, her husband Mykola Artiomov began to fulfill these contracts. Together, they have spent more than 2 million hryvnias.

According to the CPR, the family of Oleh Belous himself also received significant funds from the budget. His wife Natalia, as a council member, as a private entrepreneur, supplied goods to the village hospital and education department worth about UAH 1.5 million.

In addition, Nina Bolharchuk, Olena Artiomova's mother, a private entrepreneur, has received orders from the community for half a million hryvnias over the past five years.

"So, as you can see, the budget funds in the Oknyanska community are being used in a rather family atmosphere. The editorial office is ready to present the position of the Oknyansky village council, if it provides it," the CPR notes.