Law enforcement officers exposed top officials of the State Labor Service in systemic corruption: details of the criminal scheme

The Strategic Investigations Department of the State Labor Service of the National Police exposed top officials of one of the interregional departments of the State Labor Service in a systematic bribery scheme. The amount of bribes ranged from 1,500 hryvnias to 1,000 dollars.

This is reported by the National Police.

Law enforcement officers have documented numerous cases of extortion and receiving money for resolving issues that fell within the sphere of influence of the leadership of the interregional department of the State Labor Service. These include failure to hold accountable for violations of labor legislation, failure to interfere in the economic activities of enterprises, organization of fictitious training on labor protection issues, and issuance of relevant certificates.

A separate area of abuse was the preparation of declarations-permits for work with increased danger and the execution of documents confirming the compliance of the material and technical base with the requirements of the legislation. Officials also offered to pay for a “proper” investigation of accidents at work.

For example, a fictitious training session cost 1,500 hryvnias. Issuing a certificate without real training was 4,500 hryvnias. The production and registration of declarations of conformity were estimated at 30,000 hryvnias. A “proper” investigation of an accident at the enterprise cost 40,000 hryvnias.

Operatives of the State Security Service of the National Police in Ivano-Frankivsk region, with the participation of the State Bureau of Investigation and the Prosecutor’s Office, detained three officials of the interregional department and the head of the company that trained employees and processed documentation.

The head of the department, the head of the structural unit and his deputy were notified of suspicion under Part 3 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The head of the company was notified of suspicion under Part 3 of Article 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. He also acted as an intermediary between officials and entrepreneurs.

During almost 40 searches that took place in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, and Chernivtsi regions, law enforcement officers seized over one million hryvnias, 25,000 dollars, phones, and documentation.

The court chose preventive measures in the form of detention with the right to post bail for all suspects:

• For the head of the interregional department, the bail is over 2.9 million hryvnias.
• Bail of 2 million hryvnias has been set for the head of the structural unit.
• Bail was set at 1,968,200 hryvnias for his deputy.
• For the head of the company – 400,000 hryvnias.

The maximum penalty under the above articles is up to 10 years of imprisonment. Documentation and exposure measures were carried out jointly with investigators of the Fifth Investigation Department of the State Bureau of Investigation in Lviv, State Bureau of Investigation operatives, and under the procedural guidance of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office.

We will remind you that investigators of the State Bureau of Investigation, in cooperation with the Security Service of Ukraine, reported a new suspicion to an official of the Dnipro Housing and Operations Department , who appears in a corruption scheme to overstate the cost of beds for military units in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

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