Head of the Public Anti-Corruption Council under the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Yevhen Hrushovets: “The statement that the jackets were old does not correspond to reality” (illustrative photo)
The jackets from Turkey for Ukrainian servicemen, which became the object of the journalists’ investigation, were definitely winter, not summer, as the investigators wrote about it. About it on the air of Radio Svoboda (project “Freedom. Morning») according to the results of the preliminary inspection, the head of the Public Anti-Corruption Council under the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Yevhen Hrushovets, said.
“We definitely managed to find out, these are facts that have been definitely confirmed. First of all, these jackets are not summer, not demi-season, they are winter jackets that are sewn in Turkish factories. We understand that these were the events of summer-autumn 2022. And already in the fall, they were assigned to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And most of these jackets were indeed issued. Some more batch remains in warehouses. Therefore, the first statement that the jackets were summer is not true. And accordingly, we should all understand that the numbers that journalists talked about, that a jacket allegedly costs 20 or 30 dollars, we understand that it is impossible to buy a winter jacket for 30 dollars,” said the head of the Public Anti-Corruption Council under the Ministry of Defense.
According to him, the Public Anti-Corruption Council also established that the Ministry of Defense did not have those invoices (invoice – ed.), which journalists have. It is the invoices in which the price is indicated in Turkish documents. Because these documents are submitted exclusively by the Turkish side when shipping the goods. And in principle, the Ministry of Defense should not have these documents.
“In addition, we also established that the Ministry of Defense began receiving these jackets in October 2022. At the same time, the manufacturer or supplier did not receive the entire prepayment under the contract. We find out why this happened. It certainly did not harm the Armed Forces of Ukraine. But there were such things. In addition, the entire batch that was delivered, it was fully accepted. There are small flaws on these jackets, they related, if I’m not mistaken, to the collar. But with the participation of the Command of Logistics Forces, Quality Control of the Ministry of Defense, a commission was created, which, considering the urgent need for these jackets already in the winter season of 2022-2023, they were all accepted. Therefore, today the Public Anti-Corruption Council plans to visit the warehouse or warehouses where these jackets are stored. We communicate with military personnel. For me, there is no question whether they were summer or winter jackets. They were definitely winter,” Yevhen Hrushovets explains.
Regarding inflated prices, according to him, this issue is definitely not for the Ministry of Defense. Because when contracts were signed there, the price was indicated in the contract. And, taking into account the fact that this is a product of non-domestic production, how the manufacturer will declare this product in the country of origin, then in the countries through which these jackets were transited, is essentially irrelevant to the Ministry of Defense, says Hrushovets.
“The head of the procurement department signed this contract alone. It was also a practice like that, because it had developed since the beginning of the war, when there were very few people and he made such a decision. But we want to find out the questions from which he based the data when he made this decision. In fact, the important question is whether this company is related to a representative from the authorities or from the deputy corps. This is of great importance. If it really was a conspiracy, then it is one story, it is corruption. If it was not a conspiracy, it was facilitation, that these jackets were in the Ukrainian army, then it is facilitation of the activities of the Armed Forces. Therefore, we are trying to answer all these questions,” he adds.
Hrushovets also emphasized that, in general, more than 180,000 jackets were purchased for the Armed Forces, as reported by journalists. And the Ministry of Defense did it at various companies. Even including Ukrainian ones. Was there really a corruption component in the price and were these jackets bought “incorrectly” – the Public Anti-Corruption Council hopes to be able to answer this question in the near future.
