Corruption case in Mykolaiv's housing and utilities sector: The bribe was handed over in a restaurant, and it was caught on camera

New evidence has emerged in the corruption case over the procurement of street lighting control cabinets for Mykolaiv — surveillance video shows the moment when funds were transferred to an official of the municipal enterprise «Self-supporting Construction Mechanisation Section» (SCMS).

This is stated in the ruling of the Vitovskyi District Court, published in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions, according to NikVesti.

The official received the money in the restaurant «Kino» in the centre of Mykolaiv. According to the investigation, the meeting between Vasyl Protsyshyn and Serhii Bezdolnyi was recorded on the restaurant's CCTV cameras. The footage shows the episode of the transfer of the second part of the bribe.

In a comment to the correspondent of NikVesti, prosecutor Volodymyr Kuznetsov noted that the video will be considered when the indictment is sent to court.

«The evidence provided by the prosecution was sufficient for the court to impose a preventive measure,» the prosecutor explained.

Corruption in the procurement of street lighting for Mykolaiv

On 9 April, it became known that Serhii Bezdolnyi, who works for the municipal enterprise «Self-supporting Construction Mechanisation Section» (hereinafter referred to as the SCMS), and Vasyl Protsyshyn, a businessman from Lviv region, were notified of suspicion of misappropriation of budget funds. He is charged with an offence under Part 4 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. He faces a prison sentence of 5 to 8 years. In addition to working for the utility company, Serhii Bezdolnyi is the brother of Dmytro Bezdolnyi, Director of the Housing and Communal Services Department of Mykolaiv City Council.

According to law enforcement officers, during the purchase of 65 street lighting control cabinets worth more than UAH 5.3 million, the budget of Mykolaiv lost almost 600,000 hryvnias due to the so-called «kickbacks» — 13% of the amount excluding VAT.

The director of Mykolaiv's Department of Housing and Communal Services, Dmytro Bezdolnyi, previously told NikVesti that he was considering resigning from his post for the duration of the investigation due to the suspicion served on his relative. It is worth noting that the wife of the director of Mykolaiv's housing and communal services department also works for the utility company where his brother is suspected of corruption.

The mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, promised to cooperate with the investigation in the case of corruption in street lighting.

On 15 April, the Vitovskyi District Court of Mykolaiv imposed a pre-trial restraint on suspected corrupt utility worker Serhii Bezdolnyi in the form of arrest with the possibility of bail in the amount of over 4.9 million hryvnias. As it turned out during the hearing, the Department of Internal Financial Control, Supervision and Anti-Corruption of Mykolaiv approved a tender for the purchase of 65 street lighting cabinets at an inflated price in September 2024.

The court also ruled to compulsorily bring the suspect Vasyl Protsyshyn to the court hearing. However, Protsyshyn did not appear at the hearing on 22 April. The court learned that his whereabouts are currently unknown, but he has not crossed the state border.

As of the end of April, the suspected businessman Vasyl Protsyshyn continues to hide from the investigation.

Read also: «Everyone should be happy in the New Year». The court heard dialogues between the utility company and a Lviv businessman in the Bezdolnyi case