HACC overturns acquittal of state-owned enterprise head convicted of abuse in road construction in Poltava region
The Appellate Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) at its meeting on January 27 partially satisfied the appeal of the prosecutor of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAРО), overturned the verdict of the HACC dated June 27, 2024, and adopted a new verdict, which found the head of one of the state-owned enterprises in Poltava region guilty of misusing almost UAH 29 million allocated for road construction in the region.
"At the end of 2018, the head of an enterprise specializing in road repair, at his own discretion, contrary to the requirements of the Law of Ukraine On Public Procurement, concluded contracts with private firms for the development of design and estimate documentation for the overhaul of local public roads. However, the use of the specified funds under the contracts did not correspond to the directions provided for by the Budget Code of Ukraine. As a result, almost UAH 29 million was used for purposes other than their intended purpose," the SAPO said on its Telegram channel on Wednesday.
At the same time, the design documentation was not used in its original form - the enterprise was subsequently forced to order its corrections for additional funds. "In addition, it turned out that the cost of work under the concluded contracts was overstated. These abuses by the head of the state enterprise, according to the expert's conclusion, caused losses to the state represented by the state enterprise in the amount of more than UAH 5.5 million," the report says.
The court sentenced him to two years of service restriction with deduction of 20% of the amount of cash benefits to the state income, with deprivation of the right to hold positions and engage in activities related to organizational and managerial and administrative and economic functions at enterprises, institutions and organizations of state and municipal ownership, for a period of 2 years.
At the same time, on the basis of Clause 3, Part 1, Article 373 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, the court acquitted the person of committing a crime stipulated by Part 2, Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, due to the absence of all elements of the criminal offense in the act, in particular the objective side.
"The decision of the Administrative Court of the Supreme Court of Justice enters into force from the moment of its proclamation and may be appealed to the Supreme Court," the SAPO reported.