The “Personnel Autonomy” Scheme: How Oborsky, Rector of Odessa Polytechnic University, Covers Up Financial and Fire Safety Violations at the College
The discovery of fire safety violations at one of the Odesa colleges affiliated with Odesa Polytechnic National University should have resulted in punishment for those responsible, following an inspection by the State Emergency Service and the issuance of a report. When the employees themselves began to investigate what exactly the university administration had done and whether the college director had been held accountable, it turned out that, in addition to the fire safety violations, problems with financial discipline had also been documented at the college. In response to teachers’ inquiries about how this could have happened, the university administration dismissed the matter by citing personnel autonomy.
Meanwhile, the documents raise several more questions: why are requests for public information being processed under the law on citizens’ appeals, why is a single response being given to three separate requests, and why is a university department suddenly being told to search for documents within its own files?
And all of this is taking place under the leadership of Rector Hennadiy Oborskyi.
Rector Hennadiy Oborsky
Let’s Start with the Fire
The story began with an inspection of the “Odesa Automobile and Road Technical College of Odesa Polytechnic National University,” a separate structural unit. The Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service in the Odesa region officially issued a ruling imposing an administrative penalty (VN No. 000438) for violations of fire and industrial safety requirements.
But it turned out that fire safety wasn’t the only issue. A letter dated April 1, 2025, No. 559/85-04, from the then-acting rector, Serhiy Nesterenko, states that internal audits at the college also revealed violations of financial discipline.
At that time, the university administration limited itself to a statement that the college director, S. V. Myronenko, had been “warned,” and that the issue of his disciplinary responsibility would be resolved “after discussion with the teaching staff.” However, months have passed, and no official personnel decision has been made: there is no order to hold the director accountable. This was the university’s response to requests for the relevant documents: “none.”
The rector will make the decision. When?
When the staff at Odessa Polytechnic National University began asking how the situation with the college director had been resolved, the rector’s office did everything in its power to avoid answering the main question. In response No. 38/85-08 dated January 8, 2026, signed by Rector Hennadiy Oborskyi, the university stated that the requested information and documents “do not exist.”
The administration justified its inaction by citing Art. 23 of the Law of Ukraine “On Education” (organizational and personnel autonomy) and Article 34 of the Law of Ukraine “On Higher Education,” noting that the rector would “make a decision independently if necessary.”
In other words, the university administration used the concept of “higher education institution autonomy” not to advance the institution, but to create a sort of “immunity” for the head of a department who had committed fire safety and financial violations. The rector’s office never explained why no decision had been made at all.
One inquiry—one response. Three inquiries—still just one response
Anna B., a faculty member at Odessa Polytechnic University, approached the university administration with a request to clarify the situation surrounding the financial and fire safety violations. Instead of responding to the requests in accordance with the Law “On Access to Public Information,” the university began treating them as citizen petitions. Moreover, the administration responds to three separate requests in a single letter. The justification is that they are allegedly “duplicate” requests under Article 8 of the Law “On Citizens’ Appeals.”
In other words, instead of three responses to three questions, the requester receives a single denial, issued under a different law.
Escalation to the Ministry of Education and Science and Law Enforcement Agencies
The persistent disregard for administrative procedures and Articles 19 and 20 of the Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public Information” served as the basis for filing an official complaint with the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine.
The complaint emphasizes the personal responsibility of Rector Hennadiy Oborskyi under Article 34 of the Law of Ukraine “On Higher Education” and demands an official investigation into the rector’s activities regarding the organization of record-keeping and access to public information. It also calls for an official legal assessment of the inaction by the university’s administration and for measures to prevent the complaint from being referred back to Odesa Polytechnic University.
The complainant, university lecturer Anna B., notes that in the event of a merely formal response from the Ministry of Education and Science, the case will be referred to the District Administrative Court, as well as to the National Agency for Corruption Prevention (NAZK), the State Bureau of Investigation (DBR), and the prosecutor’s office for an assessment of the actions of university officials.
Incidentally, Odessa Polytechnic University was recently embroiled in a mobilization scandal. In 2025, the National University “Odessa Polytechnic” and its separate structural unit, the Odessa Automobile and Road Technical College, were subject to unscheduled inspections by the State Service for the Quality of Education of Ukraine.
The inspection focused, in particular, on how the institutions admitted students and organized the educational process for men subject to military service. During the inspection, the State Service for Quality of Education noted an unusually high number of adult students. The numbers speak for themselves—especially in the context of those who had arranged individual study schedules. Rector Hennadiy Oborskyi and college director Serhiy Myronenko admitted to inadequate oversight and paid administrative fines.
Dmytro Verbytskyi is officially evading mobilization at the university
But among students aged 25 and older, former Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Dmytro Verbytskyi—a figure implicated in a high-profile corruption scandal—has successfully slipped in. He is supposedly enrolled as a full-time graduate student at the National University “Odessa Polytechnic,” which gives him the official right to a deferment from mobilization. This information was officially confirmed by the university’s rector, Hennadiy Oborskyi, in response to a journalistic inquiry from the online media outlet UA.NEWS (a copy of the relevant document is in the editorial office’s possession).
