“Municipal security” of Kyiv was created for money laundering // CV collage
The auditors of the Kyiv City State Administration (KSCA) have recently completed an audit of the activities of the Municipal Guard. During the audit, it was found that during 2020-2022, the management of this organization committed violations and shortcomings in its work for a total of UAH 13.2 million. In particular, the “Municipal Okhrana” unreasonably increased the salaries of its employees and paid them unreasonable bonuses, ordered legal services from private lawyers, having specialized specialists on its staff, set prices for security services without any calculations, collaborated with a public formation “ Municipal Guard” without financial or socio-economic effect.
As became known KVRecently, the Department of Internal Financial Control and Audit of the KSCA published the results of a scheduled audit of the activities of the municipal organization (KO) “Municipal Guard”.
Relevant audit report № 070-2-2-04/16 dated November 16, 2022. On the website of the aforementioned department, this document was published in early January of this year – when it became known which comments of the auditors were taken into account by the leadership of the “Municipal Guard”, and which were ignored.
As noted in the report, the relevant department of the KSCA checked “the legality and reliability of financial and budgetary reporting in the Municipal Guard, the correctness of accounting, compliance with legislative acts, plans, procedures, the legality and efficiency of the use of budgetary funds.” The audit covered the period of activity of this communal organization from January 1, 2020 to January 25, 2022.
What the auditors found
During the audit, the “auditors” found that during 2020-2021 and the first half of 2022, UAH 465.3 million was allocated from the budget of Kyiv for the maintenance of the Municipal Guard. This communal organization earned another 2.6 million hryvnias in its “treasury” by carrying out economic activities. Based on the results of the audit, facts of violations and shortcomings were established in various segments of the activity of the CO “Municipal Okhrana” for a total of UAH 13.2 million, of which UAH 13.16 million were unlawful losses, another UAH 58.3 thousand were ineffective and risk loss.
So, according to the audit report, in 2020, the municipal security company “Municipal Okhrana” unreasonably increased the official salaries of employees in connection with the use of inflated sizes of the so-called “ratio coefficients” in their calculation (according to the legislation of Ukraine, the salary of security workers) of enterprises is calculated according to special formula (CF), as a result of which unreasonable (additional) expenses in the amount of UAH 11.3 million were incurred by the budget of Kyiv.
At the same time, according to the auditors of the Kyiv City State Administration, in the period 2020-2021 there were 56 cases of accrual of material assistance and incentive bonuses to employees of organizations that were more than it was provided for by the relevant orders for their payment.
In addition, the “auditors” identified one case of charging an allowance in the absence of an order. All this led to the excessive use of funds from the budget of Kyiv for a total of 966.4 thousand hryvnias
The auditors of the Kyiv City State Administration discovered that in 2020, the municipal security company “Municipal Okhrana” used UAH 159.5 thousand of budget funds inefficiently. The organization transferred the Tsypin and Partners law office for legal services. The auditors found that the legal services duplicated the duties of full-time employees of the legal service of the municipal organization.
The auditors also found that the law firm “Tsypin and Partners” offered services that the KO “Municipal Okhrana” could perform without the involvement of legal specialists. These services include “search for expert institutions for examining computer hardware and software products”, and analysis of software deficiencies, which did not require lawyers.
The auditors of the Kyiv City State Administration uncovered the absence of proper warehouse accounting and automated inventory accounting processes, failure to communicate the rules of document flow and technologies for processing accounting information. These shortcomings create risks related to the movement and preservation of material assets.
According to the results of the inventory, the auditors found the absence of 19 car tires valued at 36.7 thousand hryvnias. They couldn't establish the reasons for the absence of this property due to the lack of financial responsibility. Additionally, they discovered the storage of unaccounted property without relevant agreements and acceptance certificates in the organization's warehouse locations.
The auditors learned about the joint storage of inventory items of the Municipal Guard and the Kyiv city public formation for the protection of public order and the state border without proper identification. The Department of Internal Financial Control and Audit of the Kyiv City State Administration raised concerns about potential manipulation of accounting data and assets due to this situation.
At the same time, the auditors of the Kyiv City State Administration believe that the partnership between the “Municipal Guard” and the “Municipal Guard” (it was secured by special memorandums concluded in 2020-2021. – KV) does not bring any financial or socio-economic benefit to the organization. The “auditors” suggested that such partnership aims to ensure that the public organization uses the storage facilities of the utility organization for free. The auditors reached this conclusion because no other types of partnership between the KO and the GF were established for the period of 2021-2022, indicating that the results of such partnership were not reflected in any documents.
Additionally, the Department of Internal Financial Control and Audit of the Kyiv City State Administration believes that the process of determining the cost of security services by the “Municipal Guard” is “risky and non-transparent” – the “auditors” found out that such prices are set by the management of the communal organization at its own discretion and without appropriate economically sound calculations. The audit report does not specify how much money KO “Municipalnaya Okhrana” could lose due to this flaw in the management. From the beginning of 2020 to the first half of 2022 inclusive, the organization received income for the provision of security services in the total amount of UAH 2.1 million.
After these checks, the Department of Internal Financial Control and Audit of the KSCA issued 20 recommendations to the Municipal Guard to address the identified violations, of which the majority – 16 recommendations – were fully taken into account by the organization’s management. Interestingly, the auditors of the Kyiv City State Administration did not require the “Municipal Guard” to return “overpaid salaries”. Instead, the communal organization received recommendations regarding aligning employees' official salaries with regulatory legal acts and holding a meeting with responsible employees to ensure compliance with legislation on wages. The organization acknowledged and acted upon these comments.
What are the responsibilities of Municipal Security?
The City Council established the “Municipal Guard” in September 2017 – at that time, some council members opposed its creation, expressing concerns about the lack of a financial plan for the CP.
Additionally, some deputies of the Kyiv City Council and public activists claimed that the “Municipal Guard” is simply a business project of the mayor of Kyiv Vitaliy Klitschko or one of his deputies, whose main purpose is to suppress protests near the mayor’s office and take action against particularly active opponents of the city authorities. Despite these arguments and accusations, no actions were taken. Later, in April 2021, the city council reorganized the “Municipal Guard, transforming it into a communal organization — the city leadership explained this reform as necessary to “harmonize” the activities of this structure with budget and antimonopoly legislation. a task As per the rules about the Municipal Guard, its main job is to protect communal properties in Kyiv, offer protection for individuals and property of organizations and people, and provide services for the installation, maintenance, repair, and regulation of security devices and structures for monitoring and remote monitoring. According to an audit report, in 2021, this guard protected 232 communal facilities, including 170 schools and cultural institutions.
So, in May 2021, the prosecutor's office of Kyiv…
At the same time, the activities of this organization are regularly accompanied by scandals – both because of possible facts of corruption and because of the dubious behavior of individual employees of the Municipal Guard.
that the management of the “Municipal Guard” carried out the procedure for the procurement of services for the professional training of security guards for more than half a million hryvnias without actually providing these services. And in October of the same year in the Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office… informedthat the leadership of the “Municipal Okhrana” in 2019-2020 probably caused damage to the city budget of Kyiv in the amount of more than 4.7 million hryvnias when purchasing uniforms and accessories at an inflated cost. Within the framework… toldAnother high-profile incident occurred in November 2021…
information about the beating of a man by employees of the “Municipal Guard”. They say that in one of the capital’s parks they detained a citizen who was administering a natural need in a place not designated for this, after which they allegedly beat him with a rubber stick and accurately sprayed tear gas in his face. But in the future, this scandal was brought to naught: the KSCA reported… verify In January 2022, several community activists…
that the probable former separatist Willy Perehodenko, who fought against the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2015, served in the ranks of the Municipal Okhrana KO. Information about him was published by the employees of the communal organization themselves… reportedAndrey Krishchenko sent an appeal to the Security Service of Ukraine to verify the information. As a reminder, since December 13, 2021, the Municipal Guard is heading…
Sergey Chernyshev . His predecessors in this position were Alexander Katsubo (from October 20, 2017 to June 25, 2020), Igor Mari (from June 26, 2020 to February 2, 2021, one of the co-founders and current head of the Municipal Guard Fund mentioned above), Andrey Nikita (since February 3, 2021 to March 24, 2021), Yuri Omelya (from March 25, 2021 to May 30, 2021). Prior to the appointment of Chernyshev, during the…. His predecessors in this position were Alexander Katsubo (from October 20, 2017 to June 25, 2020), Igor Mari (from June 26, 2020 to February 2, 2021, one of the co-founders and current head of the Municipal Guard Fund mentioned above), Andrey Nikita (since February 3, 2021 to March 24, 2021), Yuri Omelya (from March 25, 2021 to May 30, 2021). Prior to the appointment of Chernyshev, during the “transformation” of this CP into a KO, the corresponding reorganization commission was headed by the same Igor Mari.
The specified organization in its activities is subordinate to the Department of Municipal Security of the KSCA (until 2020 – the Department of Civil Protection of the KSCA), which since December 12, 2018 is headed Roman Tkachuk (on the collage). Since November 2021, the activities of this structure have been controlled by the Deputy Chairman of the Kyiv City State Administration on the implementation of self-governing powers, the former head of the Main Directorate of the National Police of Kyiv (2015-2020) Andrey Krishchenko. The latter at one time was already the direct head of the current head of the Municipal Okhrana CO: in 2014-2015, Chernyshev headed the Nikitovsky district police department of the city of Gorlovka (Donetsk region), and Krishchenko then led the Gorlovka city administration.
Ivan Kulik, translation Skeleton.Info
