From a cleaner to an apartment owner in a year and a half: a corruption scandal at the NAU
5 July 2024 13:27
The State Audit Service of Ukraine has uncovered a large-scale scheme of illegal privatisation of office housing at the National Aviation University (NAU), the "Komersant Ukrainian" reports citing the SASU press service.
According to the service, the NAU management withdrew 32 apartments in Kyiv with an estimated value of UAH 26.4 million from the educational institution, which were subsequently privatised.
The scheme used by the university management was quite simple but effective. People were hired as janitors, then provided with official housing, and after a while these apartments were privatised. After the privatisation process was completed, the “employees” were dismissed. The auditors recorded at least 10 such cases.
A typical example of such a scheme was as follows: citizen A. was first appointed as a cleaner, and a month later was transferred to the position of a janitor. The very next day after her transfer, she received a certificate stating that her work was important to the university. 75 days after her employment, the NAU Housing Commission provided her with a two-room apartment of 67.2 square metres. Less than a year later, the apartment was withdrawn from service, and a few months later it was privatised. Immediately afterwards, citizen A. resigned “of her own free will”.
Particularly noteworthy is the fact that similar apartments on the Kyiv real estate market cost about 130 thousand US dollars. At the same time, during her work as a janitor, citizen A. received a salary of UAH 875,700, which is significantly higher than the average salary for such a position.
The Head of the State Audit Service of Ukraine, Alla Basalaeva, stressed the need for additional investigation of this case by law enforcement agencies. According to her, the auditors do not have the authority to find out the motives of the scheme participants, so all materials have been passed to the relevant authorities.
In total, the audit revealed violations worth UAH 114.1 million, of which more than UAH 103.4 million resulted in direct losses, material damage and losses.
