Ivano-Frankivsk City Council officials detained on bribery suspicion – prosecutor general
In Ivano-Frankivsk, city council officials have been exposed for allegedly working with the head of a specialized utility enterprise to accept bribes for issuing permits to entrepreneurs and developers, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko said on Wednesday.
"The scheme in the city council was organized by an official from the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture – the city’s chief architect, an official from the Department of State Architectural and Construction Control, and the director of a utility enterprise (KP) involved in the development of urban planning, design, and land management documentation," the prosecutor general wrote on Telegram.
According to his information, the officials acted as organizers and executors for the processing and signing of necessary decisions. The director of the utility enterprise personally met with clients, stated the set rates, convinced applicants of the inevitability of payment, and directly collected cash.
Bribes were taken from businessmen twice: for the issuance of urban planning conditions and restrictions on land development, and for the adoption of decisions to register notifications on the start of construction work. The suspects also guaranteed entrepreneurs assistance in the subsequent transfer of leased communal land under real estate objects into private ownership.
Documented facts include the extortion and receipt of $26,000 in bribes: $10,000 from a local entrepreneur for construction passports for three plots, $5,000 from a representative of a chain of construction supermarkets for urban planning conditions for one plot, and two tranches of $8,000 and $3,000 from a construction company for similar permits and construction registration.
The Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office, together with the SBU, conducted 25 searches at residences, in vehicles, and office premises of the suspects and other potentially involved persons. Significant amounts of cash, a vehicle fleet, and weapons were seized.
All three participants in the scheme have been detained and notified of suspicion of receiving an improper benefit (Part 3 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The director of the utility enterprise is charged with aiding and abetting the crime.
A petition is being prepared to the court for the selection of a preventive measure in the form of detention for all suspects. The investigation is ongoing to identify other involved persons and additional episodes of bribery in the region’s construction sector.
