Ukrainian State Financial Inspection uncovered 7.5 billion Ukrainian hryvnia (about $0.3 billion now, up to $1 billion at the time) that have been stolen from state funds under the new post-Maidan government

Hromadske TV is a Ukrainian TV station founded in late 2013 in support of the EuroMaidan movement. It is funded by Dutch, American and British Embassies as well as George Soros' Open Society Foundations

This article originally appeared at Hromadske TV. It was translated by Kristina Rus at Fort Russ

Transcript of the video:

Nikolai Gordienko, the Chairman of State Financial Inspection of Ukraine:

- Yes, I was fired. Probably for a good work. We performed planned audit of all state companies and monopolies. In 2014 a law was adopted to audit all the state monopolies.

- Why were you fired?

- I think, for the results of the work.

- Who has fired you?

- Yatsenyuk. I think you heard in the media, what was said. A decree was announced to fire me from my position, and perform a re-inspection of my activities. They announced that our audit of Antonov was not qualified, but I would like to say, that this audit was performed by a commission from several ministries: State Financial Inspection, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Justice and so on. During this audit we found fraud for 301 million UAH. We passed the materials to Prosecutor General. Our act of inspection was completely confirmed.

Prosecutor General started criminal proceeding in the case of Antonov against the Azarov government.

We were asked to inspect government activities for the period prior to the revolution, but during the course of inspections, we have found violations from the new period, by the current government. Such as Ukrzalispostach, Ukrzalisnitsa. The government asked the Ministry of Infrastructure to perform the audit of Ukrzalisnitsa, not us (to audit themselves by themselves). Their audit was useless.

With all materials which we had inspected, Prosecutor General opened criminal proceedings. I don't have the right to give you details, which is part of investigation, but I can give you the names of the companies and the amounts.

Ukrtransgas - 219 million UAH

Ukrgasdobyvannya - 358 million UAH

Ukkrzalisnitsa - 258 million UAH

Ukrzalispostach - 300 million UAH

Ukrpochta - 61 million UAH

These are only a few contracts, which we had checked, but we have not checked all the activity.

If we checked the entire activities, the amounts are 10 times higher.

The Ministry of Finance has never been checked. We have found 552 million UAH fraud, this is the activity of the first period of Yanukovich and Azarov, and also we found one billion 46 million missing in the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry of Finance has sued us.

- What about Yatsenyuk? Which violations are the responsibility of the government of Yatsenyuk?

- Ukrpochta, Ukrzalispostach, Ukrzalisnitsa, Ukrgasvydobyvannya

Our employees are auditors, we just record facts, we take the accounting records, and just record the facts. Everything that is written in this report - are facts, taken from the accounting documents.

I am fired, thank you

Hromadske commentary:

"Corruption schemes in Ukraine are headed by the government of Yatsenyuk," - said Gordienko, the chairman of State Financial Inspection

In particular, he noted that corruption schemes were found in the process of privatization of "Ukrtelecom". According to the official, the fraud is in the billions.

Gordienko stated that during the audit of privatization of "Ukrtelecom" " a fact of non-payment in the amount of 220 million UAH of liabilities was proven, which is grounds for immediate cancellation of the contract."

Also, the fired chairman of State Financial Inspection, said that the government is blocking the disclosure of corruption schemes of the times of Azarov (Yanukovich's PM).

Finally, the official has formally asked Prosecutor General to check the activities of the government.

Later, MP Yuriy Levchenko (inter parliamentary association "Svoboda") demanded the Parliament to hear the Prosecutor General, Viktor Shokin, regarding accusations against the government of fraud of more than $7.5 billion UAH.

The members of the parliamentary association approached the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada and asked the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Vladimir Groysman to provide them with the opportunity to speak. Groisman gave them such a word.

Levchenko, in his speech said that today at the briefing in the Parliament the fired chairman of the State Financial Inspection, Nicholai Gordienko reported about the government fraud for more than $7.5 billion UAH. "We're talking about fraud in "Ukrpochta" (Ukrainian state mail service), "Ukrgazdobycha" (state gas company), about fraud of more than $4.5 billion UAH in "Naftogaz", said Levchenko.



Translator's comment: Kiev wanted to expose the fraud of the previous government of Yanukovich, but audits, which continued until a year after the Kiev junta took control of the government also uncovered their own fraud. The head of State Financial Inspection was fired for the findings.