Employees of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Prosecutor General's Office have arrested the head of the central office of the State Employment Service for bribery, the SBU press center has reported.

"The official has organized a scheme for receiving bribes from participants in tenders conducted by the State Employment Service. He used his subordinates in these illegal schemes, they forced entrepreneurs to pay to become winners of tenders," the SBU said in a statement on its official website on Friday.

According to the report, the offender was detained in an official car in the center of Kyiv while receiving a bribe of UAH 622,000. During the inspection of the car, law enforcers also found a large amount of cash in national and foreign currency, and a hunting rifle with cartridges.

Criminal proceedings have been launched under Part 3 of Article 368 (acceptance of an offer, promise or obtaining undue advantage by an official) and Part 3 of Article 28 (an offense committed by an organized group) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine reported that together with the Security Service of Ukraine they detained "one of the top officials of the State Employment Service of Ukraine" while receiving a bribe worth over UAH 600,000.

"The official received these funds for providing unlawful assistance to representatives of commercial structures while participating in public procurement and for the further misappropriation of budget funds… The offender was detained at the scene of the crime," the PGO's press service reported on Friday.

The Security Service and the Prosecutor General's Office have not made the name of the detainee public. The current head of the State Employment Service is Yaroslav Kashuba. He was appointed in February 2015.