Under the procedural guidance of the Office of the Prosecutor General, the investigators of the Security Service of Ukraine have notified the former acting director of the Department of State Procurement and Supply of Material Resources of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine of suspicion under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The mentioned official of the Ministry of Defense concluded 7 identical contracts in 2022 with one of the companies for the procurement of catering services for a total amount exceeding 2.6 billion UAH.

The specified enterprise provided catering services worth only 45 million UAH over 11 days (from February 25, 2022, to March 7, 2022), after which the suspect official of the Ministry of Defense, without following the established approval procedure and without terminating the previous contracts, entered into a new contract with this company and 16 additional agreements for the procurement of catering services for a total amount exceeding 3.9 billion UAH.

At the same time, the cost of providing services in this contract increased by more than 1 billion UAH, where the prices of the most commonly used food products were significantly inflated. This is confirmed by documentation.

It should be noted that there are currently 4 indictments regarding this official of the Ministry of Defense under consideration in court, accused of embezzlement of state funds during the conclusion of contracts for the procurement of tangible assets and personal protective equipment for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine under Part 5 of Article 191 and Part 2 of Article 114-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The court proceedings are ongoing.

Note: According to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and cannot be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in a lawful manner and established.