Ukraine uncovers massive corruption scheme in UAV procurement
Immediately after the restoration of autonomy, Ukraine's two anti-corruption agencies, NABU and SAPO, immediately discovered a major corruption scheme in the procurement of military UAVs.
Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies said they had uncovered a major corruption scheme to purchase military drones and signal jamming systems at inflated prices, Reuters reported, after the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) were restored to their autonomy.
The independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption investigators and prosecutors, NABU and SAPO, was restored by parliament on July 31, after President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law revoking NABU and SAPO's autonomy, leading to the country's largest protests since 2022.
In a statement released by both agencies on social media, NABU and SAPO said they had arrested a sitting lawmaker, two local officials and an unspecified number of national guard personnel for accepting bribes. None of them were named in the statement.
“The essence of the scheme was to sign state contracts with suppliers at deliberately inflated prices,” Reuters quoted, adding that the violators received bribes of up to 30 percent of the cost of the contract. Four people were arrested for the incident.
"Only zero tolerance for corruption, clear teamwork to expose corruption and, as a result, a fair verdict are possible," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram.
President Zelensky has faced a rare political crisis as efforts to bring NABU and SAPO under the control of his prosecutor general have sparked the first nationwide protests over the war.
Mr Zelensky later said he had heard the anger of the people and submitted a bill to restore the previous autonomy of the agencies.
Ukraine's European allies have praised the move, expressing concern that it initially stripped the independence of the corruption investigation agencies.
Top European officials have told Mr Zelensky that Ukraine is jeopardising its bid to join the European Union by curbing the powers of its anti-corruption agencies.
"It is important that anti-corruption institutions operate independently and the law passed on July 31 guarantees them every opportunity to conduct a real fight against corruption," President Zelensky said on August 3 after meeting with the heads of the agencies, who informed him about the latest investigation.
