Former director of the Center for Education Quality Assessment Ihor Likarchuk has stated that claims of Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) against him regarding embezzlement of state and budget funds and falsification of results of the External Independent Testing were groundless.

"The budget of the Centre had funds to pay bills, salaries and to hold External Independent Testing. On one occasion funds were allocated for the reconstruction of the abandoned premises and also for the purchase of equipment in 2006. During this time, there were two audits in the Center carried out by Ukraine's Accounting Chamber, which revealed no embezzlement of funds," Likarchuk said at a press conference in Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.

The Center never received funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on its accounts, Likarchuk said, noting that claims of PGO with this respect were baseless

Likarchuk also stressed that a scrutiny of the results of the External Independent Testing, which Ukraine's Education and Science Ministry initiated, couldn't be a reason for expulsion of students.

As reported earlier, in July 2015 Ukraine's Security Service identified and stopped the Center's officials from making unauthorized changes to the "Register of persons who have passed the External Independent Testing." As part of the criminal proceedings, a number of searches were conducted in the Centre and its computers were seized. A technical expertise is expected in June 2016.

Likarchuk said he was resigning on September 17.

Two students were expelled from higher educational institutions for using falsified External Independent Testing certificates.