Searches conducted at the end of last week at the main office of the State Railway Administration of Ukraine (Ukrzaliznytsia), at state enterprise Ukrzaliznychpostach and at homes of their heads could be politically motivated, Head of Ukrzaliznychpostach Oleksandr Lozinsky said at a press conference in Kyiv on Oct. 21.
He said that representatives of the previous authorities or Russia could be involved in this.
Lozinsky said that over the past three months his enterprise received 110 inquiries from law-enforcement agencies in response to which the company’s lawyer sent 10,000 letters.
He also said that documents concerning companies which supply products at the prices of 2013 were seized during the search.
“However, the prices have changed and the hryvnia exchange rate decreased. We don’t understand the reason of such activity of law-enforcers,” he said.
Lozinsky said that the documents concerning Galnaftoinvest which supplies cement and Exposition company which delivers fastening units for the upper section of the tracks were seized. Checks of Dnipropetrovsk Switch Plant are underway.
“I have a favor to ask politicians and Security Service of Ukraine to conduct the check as well as possible, fairly and without bias and help Ukrzaliznytsia to turn the corner,” he said.
As reported, the Security Service of Ukraine, or the SBU, and the Prosecutor’s Office have conducted 19 searches at the State Rail Transport Administration, or Ukrzaliznytsia, and confiscated over Hr 7 million (about $541,000 at the official forex rate) and $1 million in cash.
“A money laundering syndicate has been working at the State Rail Transport Administration of Ukraine for years. The danger is that every railway company, every contractor of the railways, every insurer has been incorporated by corrupt officials in one money laundering and public funds embezzlement system,” the SBU press center quoted Nalyvaichenko as saying on Oct. 16.
Earlier Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk ordered to check the financial and economic operation of Ukrzaliznytsia. Ukrzaliznytsia Director General Borys Ostapiuk was suspended from the post for the period of the check.
Under the order of the prime minister, an interagency commission of the Infrastructure Ministry has been created, and representatives of the department responsible for anticorruption policy in the cabinet’s secretariat are members of the commission.
MP Mykola Kruhlov (the Economic Development lawmaker group) has withdrawn its address with demand to check the operation of Ukrzaliznychpostach state enterprise and discharge its director Oleksandr Lozinsky and Director General of State Railway Administration of Ukraine (Ukrzaliznytsia) Borys Ostapiuk from their posts.
Recently the commission of Ukrzaliznytsia revealed facts of corruption at the central railway station of Kyiv. During the check conducted from Sept. 25 to Oct. 13, the operation of 32 ticket agents was checked, and facts of violation of labor and financial discipline were established with 23 of them.
