Amidst the war, when every energy facility becomes a matter of national security, a large-scale case of budget embezzlement has been uncovered in Zakarpattia. Law enforcement agencies have exposed a scheme to embezzle over 104 million hryvnias intended for the construction of protective structures at a critically important electrical substation.

Suspicion of committing the crime has been presented to the former head of the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in the Zakarpattia region, Yuriy Maksimenko. According to the Office of the General Prosecutor, the official personally coordinated and signed documents with artificially inflated prices for construction materials.

Five-fold price inflation

The investigation established that this was not a case of simple negligence or calculation errors, but a conscious choice to inflate prices at the state's expense. A striking example of abuse was special drilling tools. In official documents, their cost exceeded the actual market price by more than five times.

During searches, law enforcement officers found documents with real commercial offers from suppliers. These papers irrefutably prove that the official knew the actual cost of materials but still approved the inflated amounts. Expert assessments confirmed the damage to the state at 104.9 million hryvnias.

"It's not just concrete and metal"

General Prosecutor Ruslan Kravchenko emphasized the particular importance of the case under investigation. According to him, during wartime, energy facilities have unique value, ensuring the stability of the power system and the safety of citizens.

"But even under such conditions, there are those who see in state projects not responsibility, but an opportunity to make money," Kravchenko noted.

A series of corruption scandals in the energy sector

The case in Zakarpattia became part of a broad wave of investigations against officials appropriating funds allocated for the restoration and protection of infrastructure. Recently, law enforcement has recorded a number of similar cases across the country:

  • Lviv region: the head of the Restoration Service was notified of suspicion of misusing the budget. Instead of prioritizing road repairs, the official directed funds to equip a parking lot.
  • Kyiv: the head of a municipal enterprise was notified of suspicion of embezzling 1.2 million hryvnias. The money was paid to a private firm for plants that could have been obtained from the city nursery for free.
  • Kryvyi Rih: the chief engineer of a heat-generating enterprise is accused of a decision that effectively disabled part of the city's heating networks.
  • UkrEnergo JSC: an engineer was notified of suspicion of official negligence. He signed an acceptance act for a contractor's work, "failing to notice" that the latter used lower-grade materials when building a fence around the energy facility.