Ex-official of the Ministry of Defense admitted guilt in corruption

The Supreme Anti-Corruption Court approved an agreement regarding the former deputy director of the public procurement department of the Ministry of Defense Konstantin Stupak.

The editors learned about this from the verdict under Part 2 of Art. 28 hours 1 tbsp. 114-1, part 2 art. 28 hours 2 tbsp. 364 CC

In 2021, the Ministry, based on the results of bidding, had two food suppliers - Voenservice-Volonter LLC and Resource Service KM LLC. The accused was then temporarily acting director of the Department.

Suppliers proposed to exclude from contracts their obligation to refresh food supplies by replacing products. At the same time, units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were supposed to redistribute confiscated food products between military units and use them to feed personnel.

The accused, former acting head of the government procurement department, reported this to the Deputy Minister of Defense. And in the future, officials seemed to have conspired to abuse their official position in the interests of private supply companies.

Knowing that additional agreements to the main agreements would require prior approval from the Department of Finance of the Ministry of Defense, the Department of Legal Support of the Ministry of Defense and structural units of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Deputy Minister of Defense ordered the accused to sign additional agreements. Realizing the illegality of such an instruction, the official complied with it and signed the agreement without the consent of the relevant structural units.

Subsequently, officials took actions aimed at implementing these agreements and created an erroneous impression regarding their effectiveness.

The chief of logistics of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Logistics Forces Command, having learned such draft agreements, replied that his unit had not agreed on them. He also noted that the changes made to the main agreements make the process of refreshing food products in military units practically impossible, and such actions of the Department indicate possible lobbying of the interests of suppliers, while neglecting the interests of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In March 2021, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine informed the Minister of Defense that his department had illegally changed food supply contracts for the army. As a result of the signing of these additional agreements, a critical situation has arisen with the refreshment of food reserves in military units, which in the future could lead to their damage and undermine the combat readiness of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Minister of Defense instructed his deputy to work on this letter, who, according to the prosecution, was the one who facilitated the agreements mentioned.

The deputy minister turned to the head of the procurement department, who was his accomplice, and gave verbal instructions to prepare deliberately false information that the previously defined food refreshment mechanism did not work and these changes, on the contrary, have a positive effect.

In May 2021, Voenservice-Volonter LLC proposed similar changes to another product supply agreement. The head of the procurement department, on the instructions of the Deputy Minister of Defense, signed the agreement again.

As a result of such actions by officials of the Ministry of Defense, more than 11 million in property damage was caused - due to the need to pay for services to refresh the food of military units.

In addition, the Armed Forces of Ukraine were entrusted with unusual functions of redistributing confiscated food products between military units, which caused property damage in the amount of about 692 thousand hryvnia, consisting of fuel costs when transporting food between military units, business trips of military personnel accompanying the transportation, etc. .

The former acting head of the Department of Public Procurement of the Ministry of Defense entered into a plea agreement with the anti-corruption prosecutor in November of this year.

He is found guilty of abuse of official position (part 2 of article 28, part 2 of article 364 of the Criminal Code), as well as of obstructing the legitimate activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (part 2 of article 28, part 1 of article 114-1 of the Criminal Code) for by prior conspiracy by a group of persons.

The accused sincerely repented and undertook to give truthful and detailed testimony regarding the involvement and role of another person in this crime. He also agreed to compensate the Ministry of Defense for 400 thousand hryvnia of damage.

Under the terms of the agreement, the ex-official was sentenced to 5 years of suspended imprisonment, released from serving a prison sentence with a probationary period of 2 years. He was also banned from holding certain positions for years and was fined 17 thousand hryvnia.