A court in Mykolaiv has given experts three months to examine the claims made by the State Audit Service, which is seeking to recover nearly ₴200 million from the electric transport operator

Auditors believe that 196.8 million hryvnias of public funds may have been misappropriated in the transport sector between 2022 and 2025. Photo: Mykolaivelektrotrans

The Mykolaiv District Administrative Court has approved an extension to the timeframe for conducting a forensic economic examination in the case brought by the municipal enterprise ‘Mykolaivelektrotrans’ against the Southern Office of the State Audit Service. The examination will last for more than three months.

This is evidenced by the court’s ruling of 19 August 2026, according to NikVesti.

It should be noted that this concerns a claim by the municipal enterprise to overturn the demand issued by the Southern Office of the State Audit Service in the Mykolaiv region on 14 April 2026. At that time, following an audit of the company’s activities for 2022–2025, the auditors claimed that funds totalling 196.8 million hryvnias had been unjustifiably received from the budget for the provision of passenger transport services.

«Mykolaivelektrotrans» disagreed with the findings, noting that the cost of services and planned revenues had been significantly affected by the circumstances of martial law, and on 28 April applied to the court to have the relevant clause of the demand set aside.

According to the register of court decisions, on 16 June the court ordered a forensic economic examination, entrusting it to the Mykolaiv branch of the Odesa Research Institute of Forensic Expertise.

In parallel with the claim (№400/7603/26) for the recovery of funds, auditors brought a case before the court in July. However, as early as 3 August, by a court order, their proceedings were stayed until the results of the economic expert assessment in the first set of proceedings concerning the «Mykolaivelektrotrans» claim were ready.

However, the experts submitted a motion requesting an extension of the investigation period beyond the standard 90 days. They justified this by citing the complexity of the case and the significant current workload of the economic experts. Furthermore, the institute requested that additional source documents be provided.

In view of this, the judge granted the institution’s motion. After the additional materials were submitted, she once again stayed proceedings in case №400/4377/26 pending receipt of the official report.

It should be recalled that residents of Mykolaiv had previously complained about the «dead» routes operated by «Mykolaivelektrotrans».