In Lviv, the director of a contracting company that carried out repairs to a school damaged by a missile strike is suspected of misappropriating budget funds and falsifying official documents. The company is headed by the brother of one of the city council deputies.
According to the investigation, in 2023 funds from the budget of the Lviv City Territorial Community were allocated for emergency restoration works at one of the city schools that had been damaged as a result of a missile attack by the Russian Federation. The contract provided for the removal of certain structural elements of the building from an emergency condition.
After the works were completed, according to investigators, the director of the contracting firm entered false information into the work completion certificates and certified them with the company seal. The official documents indicated the full scope of plastering of window and door reveals, whereas in fact such work had only been carried out on roughly a quarter of the surfaces; the remaining volume existed only on paper.
The director submitted the documents containing false data to the education department of Lviv City Council. As a result, according to the investigation, almost UAH 575,000 was unjustifiably transferred to the contractor’s account, which represents about half of the total contract amount.
Under the procedural guidance of the Frankivsk District Prosecutor’s Office of the city of Lviv, the company director has been served with a notice of suspicion of misappropriation of another’s property through abuse of office and of falsifying official documents under Part 4 of Article 191 and Part 1 of Article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Investigative actions are ongoing in relation to other individuals who may be involved in the unlawful activity.
The pre-trial investigation is being conducted by Lviv District Police Department No. 2 of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Lviv Region, with operational support from the Security Service of Ukraine Office in Lviv Region. Pursuant to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime until their guilt is proven in accordance with the law and established by a guilty verdict of a court.