The Prosecutor-General’s Office has opened a case against officials of the State Railway Administration (Ukrzaliznytsia) on suspicion of abuse of office.
"The actions of the Ukrzaliznytsia state enterprise’s officials damaged public interest to the tune of UAH 950,000,” the press service of the Prosecutor-General’s Office said, the theinsider.ua publication reports.
According to the pres service, he Prosecutor-General’s Office established that Ukrzaliznytsia officials, acting intentionally in the interests of a private law firm, concluded an agreement on provision of legal services.
The press service said that the agreement was concluded despite the fact that Ukrzaliznytsia has a large legal department.
"In addition, the said agreement was concluded in violation of the legislation on public procurement, namely without competitive bidding," the Prosecutor-General’s Office said.
As reported, at the end of January 2015 Ukrzaliznytsia announced that it had launched an internal investigation into the conclusion of an agreement with the Pukshin & Partners law firm. A commission was established. The commission, which was headed by Ukrzaliznytsia’s Director of Finance and Investment Oleksii Slipchenko, included experts from the department for prevention of crime and corruption on railways, the department of personnel management, the department of finance and economics, the legal department, the department of administration, and the department of internal control, as well as Ukrzaliznytsia’s chief accountant.
According to information from Ukrzaliznytsia, the internal investigation is still underway. Its results will be announced when the commission completes its work.
