In brief
Former infrastructure minister Volodymyr Omelian called for checks before settling contractors’ debts. He said most of the cited 20 billion hryvnias concerned work to protect energy facilities.
Ukraine’s former infrastructure minister Volodymyr Omelian urged the government to commission an audit before paying road contractors, UNIAN reported, citing his Facebook post. He was responding to an appeal by the National Association of Road Builders of Ukraine for the government to settle debts to the industry.
Omelian said the post he was responding to cited debts of 20 billion hryvnias, mostly for protecting energy facilities. He supported repayment where work had actually been completed at market prices, but argued that longstanding ties between contractors, clients and technical supervisors could allow work volumes to be inflated. This was his assessment of a risk; UNIAN’s report presented no audit findings establishing wrongdoing.
He proposed that Ukraine’s State Audit Service check the volume and cost of completed work, with funding and payments made only after its report was received. He also called for the report to be published so the public could compare the figures. UNIAN’s report did not specify whether the government had issued such an instruction.
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