Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau exposes criminal schemes worth over 1 bln hryvni in domestic defense industry
KYIV. May 11 (Interfax) - Detectives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine [NABU] have uncovered facts that serve as grounds for criminal proceedings launched on suspicion of corruption involving at least 15 Ukrainian defense firms.
In most cases, the wrongdoing included embezzlement or misappropriation of assets by means of office abuse or procurement of goods at an overvalued price through intermediary companies close to the management of the state-run companies in question, the NABU said on Facebook on Thursday.
"Detectives believe that such actions have caused, according to preliminary estimates, damage to the interests of the State in the amount of more than 620 million hryvni and $3 million dollars," the NABU said.
According to the detectives' findings, public officials play a key role in the emergence of corruption schemes affecting defense businesses: every second individual suspected of involvement in the schemes exposed by the NABU falls into this category, it said.
However, apart from unraveling existing corruption schemes, NABU detectives are preventing new ones. They do it by way of uncovering corruption-related risks in implementation of anti-corruption laws. They appeal to public officials for the risks to be eliminated.
"For instance, this is how purchases of fuel and lubricant materials at overvalued prices were prevented, as were deliveries of uniform clothing of inadequate quality. Overall, the activities of NABU detectives helped prevent the embezzlement of more than 130 million hryvni," the anti-corruption agency said.