The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has confirmed the existence of a corruption scheme that allows significantly overestimating the prices of specific categories of products. It applies to the purchase of food for the military.
Investigation of overpricing in MOD
NABU reports that from February 2022 to June 2023, detectives confirmed the existence of a corruption scheme that allows for significantly overestimating the prices of specific categories of products.
With the help of the scheme, unscrupulous suppliers receive excess profits and effectively profit off the army.
The use of the existing procurement system allows suppliers to abuse the pricing of popular product groups: eggs are sold at a very high price, while salmon or blueberries, which are not in the military's diet, are sold at prices that are several times lower than market prices, the Bureau said in a statement.
To confirm the facts of overpricing, detectives removed and processed a vast array of primary documents of the warehouse accounting of military units and recipients of the service, which is necessary to establish the supply volumes of all names of products according to the catalogue.
Currently, many examinations have been scheduled, and the collection of additional materials is ongoing.
Inspection of abuses at the Ministry of Defenсe
In January 2023, ZN.ua journalists published an investigation in which they accused the Ministry of Defenсe of purchasing food products at inflated prices for military units stationed in Poltava, Sumy, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv and Cherkasy regions.
In particular, the investigation claimed that the Ministry of Defenсe contracted eggs for UAH 17 per piece when the retail price in a store in Kyiv is approximately UAH 7 per piece.
NABU stated that abuses by the Ministry of Defenсe during food purchases had already been investigated within the framework of criminal proceedings, which were initiated before the information was made public in the mass media.
On February 2, the SBI detained business people who sold eggs to the military at 17 hryvnias per piece. Five people are involved in the scheme, including representatives of supplier companies and military personnel responsible for providing one of the military units.
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