Representatives of enterprises involved in the production of armored vehicles, shells, weapons and equipment propose to dissolve Ukraine's State Audit Service due to its demand to return profits for the execution of the state procurement order for 2022.

At a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Friday, they said that two or three months ago the State Audit Service conducted an audit of defense procurement and came to the conclusion that all profits of defense companies are considered a loss to the state, after which they demanded that enterprises and customers return them.

According to the speakers, based on this letter, law enforcement agencies could initiate criminal cases against manufacturers who supplied weapons during 2022, and such possible actions by law enforcement agencies threaten to disrupt government procurement orders and shortages of weapons at the front.

"As we have learned, the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) is currently falsifying a case against our company, which will become a precedent for an attack on the entire defense industry. Having in hand the legally void conclusion of the State Audit Service, they want to accuse us of causing damage to the state due to the company receiving profits," CEO of the Ukrainian Armored Vehicles company Vladyslav Belbas said.

He said that the company had already paid income tax, and invested the earnings in the production of weapons to defeat the aggressor.

Belbas added that the SBI actions would lead to a halt in the production of mortars, armored vehicles, disruption of the supply of critical 120 mm mines and 120 mm ammunition and an increase in losses on the battlefield. According to him, such activities of the State Audit Service and the State Bureau of Investigation create grounds to suspect Russian intelligence infiltration of Ukrainian government and law enforcement agencies.

"A few weeks ago we received a letter of claim, according to which one of the main departments of the State Emergency Service demands that we return profits within a month... If this is not done, then... it will go to court to recover profits forcibly," Deputy Director General for Legal Affairs of Industrial Company Pozhmashina LLC Roman Sereda said, describing the situation.

According to him, the basis for such actions is the conclusion of the State Audit Service.

In turn, Head of the Ukrainian Association of Light Industry Employers Oleksandr Sokolovsky noted the need to reduce regulatory authorities.

"There should be fewer law enforcement agencies, and their quality should be higher. I believe the liquidation of redundant bodies should begin with the State Audit Service of Ukraine. Because I don't understand at all why the State Audit Service of Ukraine is needed if there is the Accounting Chamber, protected by the Constitution, which also has serious specialists," Sokolovsky said.

According to him, it is necessary to set the task of improving the quality of work of the state apparatus by reducing regulators.

"We need to spend our time, effort and money on creating a product, on developing new products, on production issues, on raising people's wages because they are leaving, and this problem existed even before the war, instead of spending our time for a war with our own state," Sokolovsky said.