You're reading: Ex-top financial inspector says Yatsenyuk is corrupt

Ukraine's former chief government financial inspector has accused Prime Minister Arseniy Yatenyuk and his entire Cabinet of having knowledge of embezzlement schemes at state-owned companies that have caused at least Hr 3.5 billion (nearly $150 million) in damages to the state under their watch.

Mykola Gordienko made the allegations during a special parliamentary hearing related to corruption on April 8.

The Justice Ministry immediately dismissed the charges as defamation. The ministry said Gordienko was fired on March 4 for poor work performance.

In an April 5 interview to 1+1 channel, Yatsenyuk said that certain individuals – who he did not identify – are politically protecting Gordienko in order to overthrow the incumbent “government that fights corruption.” He also promised to name the individuals behind Gordienko publicly in parliament.

The alleged schemes at the state-run enterprises originated when the prime minister’s predecessor, fugitive Mykola Azarov, managed government until late February 2014. Gordienko said that altogether Hr 7.6 billion was pocketed during the terms of the previous and incumbent government, and that Yatsenyuk let the theft continue.

Appointed by Yatsenyuk in April 2014, Gordienko, as chief of the State Financial Inspection, tracked the use of public finances. At the parliamentary hearing, Deputy Justice Minister Natalia Sevostyanova said the former financial inspector’s comments were defamatory, insisting that his allegations relate to periods that predate Yatsenyuk’s premiership.

She, moreover, said that the State Financial Inspection was the least efficient under Gordienko because it had reviewed only 30 percent of the companies assigned by the government.

Gordienko’s allegations first emerged last month, when he gave a report to several lawmakers prepared by his agency prior to his dismissal. On March 18, lawmaker Yuriy Levchenko petitioned the prosecutor’s office to investigate the charges.

In the report, based on more than 4,000 inspections of state-owned companies, Gordienko accused the current government of pocketing Hr 7.6 billion. Later he revised the figure down to Hr 3.5 billion, saying the rest had been stolen before the incumbent government was installed.

“But those were only unscheduled (spot) revisions, had we held scheduled (systematic) ones, there would be billions more (of the losses found),” Gordienko said on April 8.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk says corruption allegations against him are politically motivated attempts to overthrow his corruption-fighting government.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk says corruption allegations against him are politically motivated attempts to overthrow his corruption-fighting government.

Deputy Prosecutor General Volodymyr Guzyr at the hearing in parliament refused to say if Yatsenyuk or any other officials from his Cabinet are mentioned in Gordienko’s reports. He said though that Yatsenyuk volunteered to testify in the case.

“We don’t need that at the moment though,” he added.

“Moreover, the current Cabinet initiated criminal proceedings (based on results of Gordienko’s inspections),” Sevastyanova said during the hearing.

When serving as chief financial inspector, Gordienko said he received threats, namely during the inspection of Energoatom, the state nuclear energy monopoly that produces half of the nation’s electricity. He refused to name the individuals who allegedly made the threats, saying he will only tell them to investigators.

Kostyantyn Vashchenko, the head of the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service, who inspected Gordienko’s work, said he found no evidence of pressure on Gordienko during his work.

Meanwhile, managers of two state agencies that Gordienko mentioned in his reports accused him of attempts to solicit bribes during inspections.

Vasyl Veselyi, the former commercial director of the state postal company Ukrposhta, in a video posted on the Internet on April 8, said that all the data in Gordienko’s inspection report was falsified.

“During the audit we were asked for a $100,000 bribe for the head of the State Financial Inspection to get the ‘right’ report,” he said.

Borys Ostapyuk, a former head of the state railway monopoly Ukrzaliznytsya, in a similar video, said that Gordienko wanted $500,000 as a bribe for a “clean” report. Gordienko has denied such allegations.

Guzyr, the deputy prosecutor, said his office is investigating both the incumbent and previous governments based on the results of Gordienko’s inspections.

Former President Victor Yanukovych, Azarov and former Finance Minister Yuriy Kolobov have already been charged with embezzlement.

Corruption and manipulation in the current government have caused Hr 685 million worth of losses ($30 million) to the state in the past year, according to the General Prosecutor’s Office.

Gordienko himself didn’t provide any evidence of Yatsenyuk’s personal involvement in the alleged embezzlement schemes, saying instead that all the state companies where wrongdoings were uncovered “are managed by people close to Yatsenyuk.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Alyona Zhuk can be reached at [email protected]