Police unable to catch Ksenia Sushko in laundering budget funds

It is not hard to guess the nature of the suspicious income of Dnipro’s deputy mayor, Ksenia Sushko. As head of the city’s humanitarian policy department, she oversees vast budgetary funds allocated for education, healthcare, and the repair and construction of schools, kindergartens, and hospitals. 

Her department annually conducts tenders and signs contracts with contractors worth millions of hryvnia. Investigators have established that during her tenure in the post, 10 criminal cases have been opened against her under the article on embezzlement of budget funds.

The first investigation was launched back in 2018, when the department under Ksenia Sushko’s leadership signed a contract worth nearly 42 million hryvnia with the company “Kontakt Prodzrezerv-5” for school catering services in several districts of Dnipro. The investigation revealed that the company submitted false information about having the necessary staff, which allowed it to win the tender and subsequently inflate the volume of food supplied, causing damage to the budget. However, the case did not reach court — the investigation stalled, and the firm continued its operations, including in the field of military catering.

In 2019, Ksenia Sushko organised dozens of tenders for the repair of schools in Dnipro, totalling 130 million hryvnia. The same company, “Budivelnia-Hilidia,” won all the tenders. Investigators later found that the company worked with entities under its control to create a false appearance of competition. 

The investigation established that 25 million hryvnia had been moved into the shadow economy through a corrupt scheme. Nevertheless, Ksenia Sushko remained unpunished — the case was closed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

A similar situation occurred in 2021 regarding school repairs. Ksenia Sushko signed contracts worth nearly 40 million hryvnia with the firm “KOM+TRANS,” which used low-quality materials and appropriated the price difference. In this case as well, the case was closed due to the expiration of the investigation period.

Another scheme involving the repair of shelters in schools, organised by Sushko in 2022, did not escape scrutiny. No tenders were conducted for contracts worth 35 million hryvnia with the company “TSL KOMPANI,” and the cost of the work was inflated. 

It was also revealed that some of the work was carried out by school staff who lacked the appropriate qualifications, and in one school, the work was not carried out at all, despite the funds having already been paid. However, even after all the violations were identified, the case did not reach court.

Thus, Ksenia Sushko continues to hold her position despite numerous criminal cases and corruption scandals in which her name is implicated. All investigations into these cases have either been closed or are at a stage where the statute of limitations is about to expire.