Ukraine’s head of government Yulia Swyrydenko announced that all large state-owned companies would be audited due to corruption scandals in the energy and defense sectors. He announced on Telegram that companies in these two sectors will be subject to very strict controls. The focus is on transparency in government purchasing. In particular, he mentioned the oil and gas company Naftogaz and the Ukrainian railway.
Shortly thereafter, he announced in another entry that because of the scandal, the position of head of the gas pipeline system was being advertised Ukraine suspended. The call for tenders was stopped because one of the finalists was named in the investigation by corruption authorities. “In conditions like these, the continuation of the tender procedure is not in accordance with the principles of transparency, honesty and trust in the process,” he wrote.
Oksana Krywenko, who worked as an adviser to former Energy and Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko, was previously on the list of applicants. Halushchenko was one of two ministers who had to resign over a bribery scandal surrounding the construction of protective equipment around energy facilities against Russian air attacks. Corruption investigators estimate the size of this bribery case at around 100 million US dollars.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:251113-930-290758/1
