Defence Ministry conducts inspections of TCCs: many violations
29 January 2024 09:59
The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine has initiated unannounced inspections of TCCs and JVs across the country, revealing numerous violations. This was stated by the Minister of Defence of Ukraine Rustem Umerov, according to 
citing his Facebook post.
Umerov said that the inspections were part of a larger strategy to fight corruption and improve the efficiency of military resource management.
“Our team at the Ministry of Defence is actively working to fix all the problems identified,”
umerov said in his address.
According to him, one of the most significant achievements was the return to the budget of UAH 1.5 billion that was lost due to corruption schemes related to the purchase of artillery shells for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In addition, the Ministry of Defence won a lawsuit against Lviv Arsenal, which failed to fulfil the terms of a contract for the supply of mines worth a similar amount.
As part of these audits, suspicions were brought against a number of former and current MoD officials and their accomplices accused of misappropriating funds intended for the purchase of mortar rounds.
In addition to financial and judicial victories, the Ministry‘s team is actively working to inspect food warehouses in military units, where it has identified food shortages worth over UAH 50 million. Steps have already been taken to change suppliers for certain military units to ensure adequate supplies.
Minister Umerov expressed his gratitude to the Security Service of Ukraine, the State Bureau of Investigation and the Prosecutor General’s Office for their fruitful cooperation and professionalism in this process.
Concluding his remarks, Rustem Umerov stressed that this is only the beginning of large-scale changes aimed at strengthening the defence capability and efficiency of the management of Ukraine’s defence sector.
“We have achieved the first significant results and continue to move forward. Expect more news,”
– umerov concluded.
Corruption in the Ministry of Defence
In 2023, seven officials from the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine received notices of suspicion of corruption. The accused include high-ranking officials who, according to the investigation, were involved in the purchase of bulletproof vests of inadequate quality.
In 2023, more than 220 criminal proceedings were initiated in relation to corruption and violations in the field of military records, which is almost four times more than in 2022.
It is worth noting that one of the most high-profile procurement scandals of the Ministry of Defence, the “eggs for UAH 17”, has not yet been proven as a crime.
Over the past year and in January 2024, 189 servicemen and employees of territorial acquisition centres and support services were served with suspicion notices. This is three times more than the number of such suspicions in 2022.
