Next week, the Prosecutor General’s Office will make criminal suspects all those involved in tax evasion in the process of selling to the state-owned Ukroboronprom spare parts to military hardware.
"Next week, I plan to hand over suspicion notices to all guilty ones and show the public that this company, like dozens before it, will bear responsibility, according to the legislation. The suspicion will be handed to the company that converted to cash the money earned without paying any taxes. And actually this enterprise will be a subject of suspicion. On the other hand, even earlier than the Prosecutor General’s Office, NABU had been investigating this company since 2016," said Lutsenko.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, on Thursday, Feb 28, authorized an interim commission of inquiry(ICI) to probe into a media report on army procurement fraud involving state-run Ukroboronprom Concern.
The powers of the parliament's ICI to probe into facts of embezzlement in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and undermining of the state's defense capability from 2004 to 2017 cover any offenses in the defense sphere, including in 2018-2019.
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The lawmakers instructed the ICI to immediately investigate the materials that were made public in the media about the purchase of spare parts, components and equipment for Ukroboronprom's enterprises at prices inflated two to four times higher than the purchase price.
In addition, the ICI was instructed to hold an open meeting together with representatives of the Prosecutor General's Office, the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office, the National Anti-corruption Bureau, the Ministry of Defense, the Ukroboronprom group of companies and other officials to investigate the facts of army procurement fraud.
The resolution states the parliament should an ICI progress report at its next plenary session. It was recommended that members of the Parliamentary National Security and Defense Committee, the Committee on the Prevention and Counteraction of Corruption, the Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement Activities take part in the commission's work.
As UNIAN reported earlier, investigative journalists from the Nashi Groshi project shared a video on February 25, 2019, with results of their probe into in large-scale embezzlement of budget funds in the defense complex. The journalists claim Ihor Hladkovsky, the son of First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleh Hladkovsky, as well as heads of enterprises incorporated into Ukroboronprom, and other senior officials were involved in the fraud schemes.
