The Pechersk Court of Kyiv on July 30 arrested Vasyl Rakul, a Defense Ministry official who demanded a bribe to rig a procurement contest in Odesa Oblast. The bail was set at Hr 10 million ($373,000).
Rakul heads the Southern Branch of the Capital Construction Department at the Defense Ministry. According to the prosecution, he demanded $1 million from an unnamed company to rig a competition for building housing for service people and their families.
Ruslan Kovtun, a former employee of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, has allegedly helped Rakul fix the deal. Both Rakul and Kovtun were charged on July 23.
Rakul and Kovtun couldn’t be reached for comment.
The prosecutors asked for a Hr 27 million ($1 million) bail for Rakul, which would be equal to the bribe he allegedly demanded. The court set the bail at Hr 10 million.
If he doesn’t post bail, Rakul will be under arrest until Sept. 23.
A separate hearing will take place at the Pechersk Court to dismiss Rakul from his Defense Ministry position. It wasn’t yet scheduled.
Rakul allegedly demanded a bribe to rig a competition that chose a contractor for constructing housing for the military. While searching the official’s house on July 23, the police seized documents showing that the winner of the future competition was determined in advance.
If found guilty, Rakul and his alleged accomplice Kovtun face up to 11 years in prison.
According to Odesa media, Rakul is a former head of the trade department of the city council of Odesa.
Bribery is endemic in the construction sphere in Ukraine, with officials often soliciting kickbacks for construction competitions, land allocation, and certification of new buildings.
One of the most high-profile cases like that is the case of Maksym Mykytas, a former lawmaker and head of Ukrbud construction company, who has been under investigation for embezzlement.
Back in 2016, Mykytas’ Ukrbud constructed an apartment block in downtown Kyiv on the land that belonged to the National Guard, a division with the Interior Ministry. In exchange, the company had to give 50 apartments in the new building to the National Guard, to house its service people.
According to the prosecution, Mykytas bribed then-head of the National Guard to swap the 50 apartments in downtown Kyiv for 65 apartments in Kyiv’s suburbs at a price difference of over Hr 81 million ($3.3 million). Mykytas denied the accusations.
