NABU dismisses detective who reported corruption at the Army of Drones

27 January 23:54

Detective Andriy Denysiuk, who was investigating abuses in the procurement of the Army of Drones for the State Special Communications Service, has been fired from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine. The detective’s letter was published by former Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, volunteer Vitaliy Deynega, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports

In a letter to his colleagues, he explained in detail the reasons for this decision. Denysiuk described numerous problems in the investigation, including a lack of transparency, insufficient resources, and the unwillingness of the leadership of the relevant departments to act professionally.

“During the investigation of corruption in IT procurement at the State Special Communications Service (one of the main ones in the Army of Drones program, which uses tens of billions annually) in April 2023, we found blatant facts of corruption in the procurement of drones with facts at the level of the head of the service (correspondence, actors, kickbacks, cash, etc.). These facts were still not enough for a complete picture and suspicion,” he wrote.

The case was large-scale, so another department and unit had to be involved.

“In November 2023, we brought the IT case to the attention of the SSSCIP management, who were hastily dismissed on the same day, contrary to all procedures. The result of the work of another drone unit for almost 6 months was an inspection and a 3-page letter (after our suspicion), where they informed the officials potentially involved in the scheme about the revealed overpriced price for one of the drones. Without any ORS or CP (operational investigation case or criminal proceedings – ed.),” the ex-detective said.

According to the detective, due to the inertia of colleagues and the lack of decisive action, some embezzlements were only partially stopped. For example, after the Bureau’s intervention, prices for drones from one of the suppliers were halved, which brought savings of more than UAH 2.5 billion.

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However, due to the lack of systemic measures, it has become much more difficult to bring those responsible to justice. Instead of a high-quality and timely investigation, according to Denysiuk, “for some reason, colleagues were busy highlighting the crimes they found without recording them.”

“Then these same colleagues are promoted, unclearly for what ‘merits’, providing rapid career growth and opportunities to scale. The results of our investigations led to fright of the scheme participants and further price reduction. And the letter sent became an element of making it impossible (at least significantly complicated) to bring to justice due to the lack of damage to the state,” he summarized.

According to the NABU ex-detective, most of the drone investigations currently have problems with qualitative proof, “first of all, the subjective side of the SSSCIP officials with “businessmen” who concluded almost all their contracts during the summer of 2023.” According to Denysiuk, “as many as 1.5 people are involved in the proceedings,” despite the fact that the cases are a priority.

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Denysiuk noted that the decision to resign was not easy for him, but he believes that he will be able to continue fighting corruption outside the bureau. He thanked his colleagues who remain committed to the NABU’s values and expressed his readiness to help them in the future.

Earlier, hromadske journalists found out that the state overpaid about UAH 600 million when purchasing EVO MAX 4T drones for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The relevant contracts were signed by the former head of the State Special Communications Service, Yuriy Shchyhol, as part of the Army of Drones project.

Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov, who was publicly responsible for the implementation of this project, said he learned about the inflated prices only in September 2023. After that, the Ministry of Digital Transformation began inspections, which eventually led to the transfer of materials to the NABU. Criminal proceedings were launched in January 2024, but no one has been charged with a crime yet.