The Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office on Oct. 9 charged two Kyiv officials and two subcontractors with embezzling money from the Kyiv’s Podilsky Bridge project.
According to authorities, the city-owned contractor “Directorate for Construction of Road Construction Facilities of Kyiv” paid $5.5 million (Hr 148 million) to low-profile subcontractors for the use of “specialist equipment,” which was not needed on the site.
The amount of work performed on the project and the amount billed did not add up. According to the prosecution, the city was overcharged Hr 1.8 million ($47,000) for unneeded work.
The head of the managing company has already been charged with embezzlement for overcharging for painting girder slabs, which cost the state budget an additional Hr 4.5 million ($170,000).
As of the end of 2020, Hr 8.8 billion ($334 million) had been spent on the infrastructure project. According to the site contractor, currently suspected of embezzlement, delays have been caused by COVID-19 restrictions and difficulties in moving construction materials to the site.
This is not the first corruption scandal to hinder the development of the project.
In June, a Bihus.info investigation alleged that the project was politically linked to the family of Ukrainian lawmaker Mykola Tyshchenko and that funds from the construction of the bridge went towards financing “Servant of the People” election campaigns in Kyiv.
The construction of the ambitious bridge project was originally planned to begin shortly after independence in 1993.
In reality, construction only began on the project in 2004. The project has been suspended numerous times due to a lack of funding, and the completion date has been repeatedly pushed back.
The bridge will become part of a planned metro line across the Dnieper river, linking Kyiv’s left bank with the capital’s right-bank district Podil and Kyiv-Zhuliany airport.
The first leg of this line is planned to be opened no earlier than 2027. The mayor of Kyiv, former boxer Vitali Klitschko, previously stated that he had planned to open the bridge by spring 2021, but contractors already missed the deadline.
