In Ternopil, an official of the State Food and Consumer Service was convicted of corruption

In Ternopil, an official of the State Food and Consumer Service was convicted of corruption

The former head of the phytosanitary safety department of the State Food and Consumer Service in the Ternopil region was found guilty of corruption.

According to the case materials, in 2021, the official received unlawful benefits from a representative of the "Lobelia" company, which imported plants and flowers to Ukraine. To import goods, you must undergo a phytosanitary examination. Employees of the State Food and Consumer Service allegedly created obstacles during inspection, the plants quickly deteriorated and the company suffered losses.

The official, according to investigators, wanted to receive money for inspecting cars with plants and flowers. He promised that in this case there would be no obstacles in the clearance of goods and phytosanitary safety workers would carry out inspections during non-working hours.

To show the seriousness of his intentions, the official allegedly created artificial obstacles for the enterprise: pests were found in one batch of goods and the goods had to be destroyed.

In April 2021, the accused received 8,400 hryvnia at the rate of 600 hryvnia for each car, after which he was exposed. Despite this, the official retained his position and was dismissed only in December 2023 with the consent of the parties.

At the court hearing he did not admit guilt. He said that earlier an SSU officer had approached him about the detection of pests in flowers and asked him to influence the laboratory to change the test results in the interests of the importing company. The accused allegedly said that he did not have the authority to do this, and his interlocutor did not like his answer. He considers the actions of the SSU to be part of provocative activities against him.

A few days after the conversation with the SSU employee, a representative of Lobelia LLC personally came to his work, who complained that due to the discovery of pests in the last batch of flowers, it would not be economically profitable for his company to destroy the quantity of goods, and the enterprise would suffer large financial losses. The "Lobelia" representative asked how such things could be avoided in the future; he wanted to find out whether the laboratory workers were deliberately creating obstacles or whether a foreign counterparty was misleading his company about the quality of the product. The accused allegedly communicated with the new head of the laboratory and suggested that product samples be submitted for examination on behalf of another company. In turn, the director of the laboratory agreed to do an independent examination, the cost of which ranged from 600 per batch of goods in one car. Therefore, he received 8,400 hryvnia precisely for conducting an examination, trying to help the importing company deal with the situation and acting legally.

After analyzing the testimony of witnesses and the records of secret investigators, the court decided that the man’s guilt was proven. He was sentenced to 5 years and 6 months in prison with confiscation of property.