Former Deputy Minister of Regional Policy Vasyl Lozynskyi, who will be tried for trying to receive a USD 400,000 bribe for inflating prices for mobile boilers in January 2023, may testify in court against Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
This is stated in the publication of Fakty-ua.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NACB) completed the investigation of the case in May, and the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) will hold a preliminary hearing in the case on July 10.
The publication reminds that as early as the summer of 2022, the Cabinet of Ministers allocated about UAH 1.4 billion for the procurement of various energy equipment through the SE "UkrNDIVodokanalproekt". Half of this amount was supposed to go to the company of Lozynskyi's acquaintance, businessman Serhii Kryvyi, a former manager of the companies of the fugitive oligarch Serhii Kurchenko. He had to overestimate the procurement price of boiler generators, for which more than UAH 800 million was allocated, by UAH 280 million. For the conclusion of direct contracts for the installation of mobile boiler houses, according to the NACB and SACPO, Lozynskyi offered one of the businessmen he knew to pay a bribe in the amount of 8-10% of the procurement amount. The total amount of the bribe was supposed to be about UAH 40 million.
Based on the published records of the conversations, the publication comes to the conclusion that Prime Minister Shmyhal knew exactly about the corrupt procurement of energy equipment, and that Lozynskyi either misinformed his acquaintance about the real state of affairs, or, on the contrary, the Prime Minister was aware of all the agreements and publicly "forced" the agreement to politically protect performers from prosecution.
The authors emphasize that it was Shmyhal who first led Lozynskyi to regional power in the Lviv Region, and then to major politics. "So it would be logical if it was he who bore political responsibility for his "protégé". However, during the one and a half years of investigating the case, Shmyhal did not comment in any way on Lozynskyi's corruption scheme, nor on how the government intends to prevent such stories in the future," the article says.
Shmyhal and Lozynskyi met no later than 2011, when Shmyhal headed (from 2009) the Main Department of Economy of the Lviv Regional State Administration (since 2010 - the Main Department of Economy and Investments). In 2011, the 25-year-old Lozynskyi already worked as the head of the department of investment policy and monitoring of free economic zones and priority development areas; held other positions in the main administration under the leadership of Shmyhal.
Then the future prime minister tried not to part with the "promising staff". From January to December 2013, Shmyhal was the director of the Department of Economic Development, Investments, Trade and Industry of the Lviv Regional State Administration. In the same period, Lozynskyi held the position of head of the investment policy office in this department. After Shmyhal became the deputy head of the Main Department of Revenues in the Lviv Region in November 2014, his place at the head of the department in the Lviv Regional State Administration was taken by Lozynskyi.
Shmyhal and Lozynskyi were also involved in the distribution of funds to the districts of the Dubnevych brothers in 2017, when they were part of a special commission for the selection of investment projects. Another "point of contact" between Shmyhal and Lozynskyi is the former short-term head of the Lviv Regional State Administration, Markiyan Malskyi. The co-founder of the "Western Ukrainian Energy Cluster" Association, headed by Shmyhal, was the "Arzinger" bar association, where Malskyi worked at the time. When Malskyi headed the regional administration in 2019, he appointed Lozynskyi as the first deputy - probably under the patronage of Shmyhal.
The publication notes that the trial against Lozynskyi could become a risk for Shmyhal's reputation. "After the preparatory meeting on July 10, the High Anti-Corruption Court will schedule a hearing on the merits of Lozynskyi's case. The arguments of the prosecution are already, in fact, set out in the publicly available suspicion. But the arguments of the defense may come as a surprise and a cold shower for many in the current government, and above all for Shmyhal. If the scheme was approved at the highest level, and Lozynskyi was simply made a scapegoat, he will obviously use all available options to reduce his potential prison term, and therefore - to tell about the "big fish" is the most logical and expected scenario of the development of events,” summarizes the publication.
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