Utility scams

Every year, municipal enterprises in big cities like Kyiv and Kharkiv cause billions of hryvnias in budget losses. They are key players in corruption schemes and money laundering for local authorities. Moreover, the top positions in such enterprises are often held by people close to the “top”.

Utility scams permeate absolutely all spheres of city life: construction (construction of new buildings, bridges and infrastructure), transportation (car evacuation, subway operation, creation of paid parking lots, taxi traffic), ritual, reconstruction (of residential and non-residential buildings and infrastructure after enemy shelling), medicine (trafficking in narcotic and psychotropic substances), trade (granting permits for spontaneous trade, installation of kiosks), finance (including the budget and funds from partner countries).

Often, with the lobbying of local authorities, municipal enterprises use the funds provided under international programs and from the budget for other purposes or for secondary needs.

For example, in Kharkiv, 159.5 million UAH allocated for the restoration of the city’s heating networks were misappropriated by a group of businessmen and officials of the KP «HarkIvskI teplovI merezhi». And in Kyiv, the utility company UZN of Holosiivskyi district spent 4.5 million UAH on planting bushes, while people rally every week in front of the Kyiv City State Administration demanding assistance to the Armed Forces and the purchase of drones and equipment at city expense.

All these are municipal scams that create chaos.

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