Kryvonos: High-ranking officials can become co-owners of large companies — arms suppliers

Kryvonos: High-ranking officials can become co-owners of large companies — arms suppliers

In Ukraine, a transformation of corruption schemes is underway: high-ranking officials from law enforcement agencies, parliament, and other state bodies may become co-beneficiaries of large companies — arms suppliers. According to the NABU director, this may influence companies’ ability to secure state contracts and orders.

This was stated by NABU Director Semen Kryvonos during a briefing.

“There is currently a certain transformation of corruption. In large companies — arms suppliers — influential beneficial owners may suddenly appear. Based on agreements or some unknown sources, high-ranking officials from law enforcement agencies, parliament, or other state bodies end up among them. In effect, they become co-beneficiaries of certain companies,” Kryvonos said.

According to him, such a situation may affect companies’ ability to obtain contracts and state orders, which in turn undermines the country’s defense capability.

Head of the SAPO Oleksandr Klymenko added that NABU and SAPO cannot overcome corruption in the defense sector on their own due to the scale of the defense budget and the volume of procurements.

According to Klymenko, the Ministry of Defence for the first time approached NABU with a request to analyze corruption risks in the defense sector. The Bureau provided a corresponding analysis for the past six months.

Former Defence Minister Rustem Umerov had previously been accused by the media of lobbying the interests of a major Ukrainian drone manufacturer from Konotop, as well as UAV projects of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

Umerov’s resignation may have been linked to a struggle between various companies for access to the defense budget. At the same time, as noted in the article, NABU and SAPO were allegedly on the side of the former minister, while companies close to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s circle, including FirePoint, were named as their opponents.