The National Agency on Corruption Prevention has called in Yulia Marushevska, the former chief of Odesa Oblast customs, to explain why she awarded herself a Hr 500 ($18) wage bonus in celebration of International Women’s Day in March 2016.
“The Security Service of Ukraine and the National Agency on Corruption Prevention accused me of an administrative violation and a conflict of interest,” Marushevska wrote on Facebook on Feb. 8.
Marushevska said that in the spring of 2016 the HR department submitted to her an order awarding all female customs workers a Hr 500 bonus on the occasion of International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8. She said she had signed the order.
“Unfortunately my last name was also included on that list of 500 women, due to the carelessness of the HR managers, Marushevska said.
The former customs head wrote that SBU Deputy Head Pavlo Demchyna had questioned her.
In his official letter to Agency on Corruption Prevention, Demchyna wrote that only the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine has the right to award bonuses to high officials of state organs, and asked for there to be an investigation into Marushevska’s violation.
If found guilty, Marushevska faces an Hr 6,000 fine with no right to work in customs-related positions for a year.
“I celebrate such a heroic battle against corruption, and hope the cases against other officials will be investigated with the same thoroughness,” Marushevska wrote.
The reform-minded Marushevska has had a long-running conflict with State Fiscal Service Head Roman Nasirov.
In December, Nasirov told Reuters he had launched a bribery investigation into Marushevska, and pointed to a sharp drop in customs revenue during Marushevska’s time in office. He said he suspected Marushevska was skimming cash off for herself.
Marushevska, in turn, denied all of the accusations and said Nasirov was trying to discredit her and her team’s work to distract public attention away from his own corrupt schemes.
Marushevska, 27, was an activist during the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2013-2014. After the revolution, she joined the team of then Odesa Oblast Governor Mikheil Saakashvili. In October 2015 she headed the region’s customs, which had the reputation of being one the most corrupt government structures in the country.
She resigned in November, soon after Saakashvili left the governor’s post, and attributed her resignation to top Ukrainian officials’ attempts to sabotage her efforts to make Odesa customs clearance more transparent.
She accused Nasirov of being the main saboteur of her work, but he denied the accusations.
