On July 6, 2020, the indictment as of former Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine was sent to court. He is suspected of committing illegal acts that caused losses in the amount of UAH 30.5 million to the state budget. His actions are qualified under Part 2 of Article 211 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. He is accused of committing illegal acts that caused losses in the amount of UAH 30.5 million to the state budget. His actions are qualified under Part 2 Article 211 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
The investigation revealed that in 2017 the former Minister of Infrastructure issued an order to reduce all port fees (except Lighthouse Signalization fee) by 20%. At the same time, one of these fees - administrative is the revenue part of the state budget. Only the Parliament has the authority to change the fee size, but not the Minister.
In addition, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine (MFU) opposed the reduction of all port fees. The MFU pointed out that the reduction of the administrative fee would lead to a shortfall in state budget revenues. The MFU informed the Minister of Infrastructure about this repeatedly. As a result, due to the Minister’s decision the state budget lost UAH 30.4 million in 2018. The budget received UAH 173.1 million instead of the expected UAH 203.5 million. The State Audit Service of Ukraine and court examination confirmed these data. Then, the Ministry of Infrastructure admitted that the decision to reduce the fees did not reach the goal.
On June 19, 2020, the former official was given notice of suspicion.
The NABU Detectives and the SAPO Prosecutors jointly with the Security Service of Ukraine started a pre-trial investigation as of the abovementioned facts in November 2019 and completed in August 2020.
According to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine a person is considered not-guilty in commission of crime and cannot be a subject to criminal punishment, until he or she is found guilty by the court.