The head of the Education Department of the Solomyanskyi District State Administration was dismissed following a procurement audit
Viktor Uzhitsky, head of the Education Department of the Solomyanskyi District State Administration in Kyiv, was dismissed from his post following an audit that uncovered violations totaling more than 49 million hryvnias.
Activist Oleksiy Ksenich announced Uzhitsky’s dismissal on Facebook.
According to UA.NEWS sources in the Kyiv City State Administration, Viktor Uzhitsky’s dismissal may have resulted from an audit of the Solomyanskyi District State Administration’s Department of Education, which uncovered a series of serious violations.
The auditors’ main complaint was the lack of an organized internal control system. The department had not implemented a procedure for determining the expected cost of goods, which allowed for the purchase of products and materials at inflated prices. Procurement regulations were incomplete, creating conditions for chaos and abuse.
The audit documented widespread instances of inefficient use of funds due to disregard for market prices:
Vegetables: purchased at prices exceeding market rates by 8.4% to 251.8% (losses estimated at 300,600 UAH).
Hard cheese: overpayment amounted to 12.7% above market prices.
Fruits and vegetables: prices were 5.3%–37% higher.
Paints: purchased at prices 28% higher than the manufacturer’s prices (losses: 281,270 UAH).
The Department engaged in the illegal alteration of “material terms” of already signed contracts:
Scheme involving fruits and vegetables: prices were unjustifiably increased and quantities of goods were altered after the auction, resulting in direct budget losses (58,070 UAH) and illegal payments to suppliers totaling 496,740 UAH.
Invalid contracts: the terms of signed contracts often did not correspond to the tender proposals, which, by law, renders such agreements invalid.
The auditors directly pointed to signs of corrupt practices benefiting certain participants:
Establishing requirements that restricted competition.
Avoiding open bidding when purchasing milk and cheese (artificially splitting up the items to be purchased).
Entering into direct contracts for waste disposal and food products instead of conducting transparent competitive procedures.
Department management systematically violated reporting disclosure requirements:
Justifications for procurements were not published without using Prozorro.
Information on the use of public funds was concealed on the Unified Web Portal.
Reports on contract performance were submitted late or not at all.
Although some minor violations (such as fines totaling 1,810 UAH) were rectified during the audit, the overall picture indicates incompetence or the deliberate creation of conditions for financial fraud. As of January 2025, some critical audit recommendations (in particular, regarding the professional development of authorized personnel and the resolution of the consequences of invalid transactions) had still not been fully implemented.
