The Lviv Arsenal company did not manage to deliver the ordered goods even more than a year after receiving funds from the Ministry of Defense.
The State Audit Service, together with law enforcement officers, is investigating the case of the Lviv Arsenal company, which received money from the Ministry of Defense for the supply of a large batch of mortar rounds worth UAH 1.4 billion, but has long expired the contract and has not transferred a single mine to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The head of the department told where this money went.
The head of the State Audit Service, Alla Basalaeva spoke about this in a new interview and noted that specialists from the State Audit Service, who cooperate with law enforcement agencies, continue to identify facts of abuse in the defense sector.
“We have a form of cooperation with law enforcement agencies when our auditors are involved as specialists in criminal cases to identify and assess violations and damage caused by a crime,” shared the head of the State Audit.
Alla Basalaeva also gave an example when companies (special importers) enter into a state contract, but do not comply with the conditions, which leads to huge losses that are unacceptable during the war.
“The customer entered into a government contract with one of the special importers for the supply of defense goods. Its terms provided for prepayment only after the supplier had provided permission for export control of the country at the place of production of the goods. However, contrary to the terms of the contract in November 2022, the customer paid more than UAH 1.3 billion, which amounted to 97% of the contract amount,” gave an example .
According to StopCor's , we are talking about the Lviv Arsenal company , suspected of embezzling UAH 1.4 billion. The latter received money from the Ministry of Defense for the supply of a large batch of 120 and 82 mm mortar rounds. However, the company has long expired the contract and has not transferred a single mine to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
It is reported that the Ministry of Defense entered into a contract with the little-known company Lviv Arsenal on November 11, 2022. A few days after this, the then Minister of Defense Alexei Reznikov gave permission for an advance payment under the contract - almost 100% of the agreement amount. Shortly before signing the contract with the Ministry of Defense, the Cabinet of Ministers included Lviv Arsenal in the official list of so-called special importers of weapons.
It turned out that the supplier of the Lviv Arsenal did not have mines, but were located in another country for which the company did not have a license. The Ministry of Defense has secured the seizure of money in Arsenal's accounts, although the decision has not yet been published in the court register.
Interestingly, according to Youcontrol, Lviv Arsenal LLC is owned by ex-People’s Deputy Yuriy Zbitnev.
Alla Basalaeva also told reporters where this money went. According to her, as part of the checks, it turned out that after the payment arrived in the account of the special importer in the state bank of Ukraine, he transferred them as his own funds to an account in a commercial bank and then paid his own non-resident supplier only 37% of the previous payment amount government contract.
“For the balance of funds, this special importer entered into an agreement with a commercial bank to charge daily interest for the use of money. From November 2022 to May 2023, he received more than UAH 78 million as interest for using bank funds. But the money was to be used only for the purposes specified in the contract!” – said the head of the State Audit Service.
She also noted that “ this is not the period of the beginning of a large-scale invasion so that one can justify it with the chaos of war,” but we are talking specifically about November 2022, when the Lviv Arsenal company embezzled funds and left the Ukrainian Armed Forces empty-handed.
“Delivery was supposed to begin in December and be completed before the end of February 2023. However, for more than a year from the date of transfer of funds, the Ministry of Defense has not received the goods. The money was also not returned,” summed up Basalaeva.
As previously reported of the State Bureau of Investigation, together with the Security Service of Ukraine, reported new suspicions to the ex-Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, the ex-head of one of the departments of the Ministry of Defense and the former head of the clothing support department of the Central Directorate for Development and Support of Material Support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who interfered with the activities of the Armed Forces forces and wasted almost 950 million UAH of public funds.
