Ukraine’s largest agricultural holding Myronivsky Hliboproduct, or MHP, fired its chief agronomist Oleksiy Serhienko accusing him of $116,000 in financial fraud detected by the company’s security service during a tender last year for pesticides and fertilizers, the press service reported on March 26.
Serhienko was suspected in fraud by MHP a long time ago, but this time there was proof, said Ksenia Prozhogina, communication director at MHP.
According to MHP’s statement, Serhienko was lobbying the interests of suppliers that were involved in the tender for many years, applying various schemes and gaining financial kickbacks.
“Serhienko received kickbacks on tenders. It was his direct income,” Prozhogina told the Kyiv Post.
Prozhogina says that Serhienko had a salary much higher than the average on the market in Ukraine, although declined to provide exact figures. According to consulting company United Consultants, a chief agronomist can earn in Ukraine from $6,300 to $12,700 per month.
MHP operates 370,000 hectares of land in seven regions of Ukraine, and it is the country’s largest producer and exporter of poultry.
In 2018, MHP exported 286,800 tons of chicken meat, or 88 percent of Ukraine’s total poultry exports, to around 80 countries, according to agriculture portal Latifundist.
Serhienko told Latifundist on March 27 that he has a “crystal clear reputation” and denied the accusations, according to the portal’s Chief Editor Kostyantyn Tkachenko.
Before he got fired, Serhienko took a lie detector test, which allegedly revealed his involvement in fraud, according to MHP.
Using a polygraph is not considered as something unusual in MHP. It is used by the company for internal investigations, especially on those who hold key positions.
“It is legal. And we just offer to go through a polygraph and no one pulls by the hand or forces them to do it. Serhienko believed that he was smarter and could pass the test,” said Prozhogina.
Once the company received the results, Serhienko was fired.
MHP said that it will not sue Sergienko.
“Let it be on his conscience,” Prozhogina said.
