The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SACPO) exposed a scheme of abuses amounting to UAH 211 million during the conclusion and execution of a contract to increase natural gas production between JSC Ukrgasvydobuvannia and a private foreign company.
This is stated in the messages of the NABU and SACPO, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
The investigation established that in 2019-2020, Ukrgasvydobuvannia held a tender and signed contract with the winning company on the provision of services to increase gas production at the company's fields.
"According to its terms, the company had to carry out basic and increased production of natural gas. At the same time, the cost of basic production of 1 cubic meter of gas was to be 3-4 times lower than the cost of increased production, and the volume was fixed. However, the officials of Ukrgasvydobuvannia by making changes to the tender documentation, the rate of base production of natural gas was reduced by 750 million cubic meters for the 15 years of the contract's potential validity. In addition, a condition was added to the contract, according to which the calculation of monthly base production indicators during the term of the contract was to be based on volumes of such production by the company during 2020, which the officials of Ukrgasvydobuvannia have forbidden its employees to increase," the message says.
It is noted that this led to an unjustified and artificial increase in the share of gas with increased production, for which Ukrgasvydobuvannia had to pay a much higher tariff.
Thus, during the period from October 2020 (when the fields were transferred to the management of the contractor) to November 2023, Ukrgasvydobuvannia incurred losses in the amount of UAH 211 million.
"For the "successful" implementation of the project, the responsible official of Ukrgasvydobuvannia received a bonus in the amount of twice the monthly salary. Later, after leaving the territory of Ukraine after the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the russian federation, he got a job as a business development manager in the company that won the competition. Currently, he and one of the company's current officials served with suspicion under Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine," the message says.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in 2023, Ukrgasvydobuvannia increased gas production by 8% to 13.5 billion cubic meters.
Ukrgasvydobuvannia is the largest gas producer in Ukraine, 100% of the company's shares belong to Naftogaz.
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