NABU and SAPO exposed a large-scale corruption scheme in the defense sector, due to which the state lost 246 million hryvnias. This concerns abuse in the development of the automated system of the Operational Command Center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine "DZVIN".
Law enforcement officials report that among the suspects are:
- former Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lieutenant General;
- former Chief of the Signal Corps of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Major General;
- former head of the Automation Development Department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, colonel;
- The director of a private company is the main executor of the contract.
Their actions are qualified under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
According to the investigation, in 2016, the Ministry of Defense signed a contract for the development of the system with a commercial company that had no experience in creating software. Over the four years of development, the technical specifications were changed 13 times, which increased the cost of the work by 300 million hryvnias. Without justification, the number of prototypes of the system was increased from 4 to 12, which resulted in additional costs for adjusting the documentation - 115 million hryvnias.
As NABU and SAP found out, the developed system did not meet the technical requirements at all: from incompatibility with NATO protocols to lack of integration with other military systems. Moreover, part of the software is not used at all. Of the 200 information and calculation tasks planned, only 10 were actually implemented.
During the investigation, detectives and prosecutors faced attempts to hinder the investigation: the individuals involved in the scheme began to hide key documentation regarding the financing and development of the project. Also, after the investigation began, they accelerated the work and even modernized the system for free, trying to make it more similar to the original design. However, due to fundamental errors in the architecture, further development of the DZVIN system is impossible.
Despite obvious shortcomings, at the end of 2022, the DZVIN system was officially adopted by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And already in 2024, instead of eliminating the shortcomings or abandoning the ineffective solution, additional funding was planned for DZVIN. This may indicate attempts not only to hide previous corruption abuses, but also to continue them.
Important expert examinations in criminal proceedings were carried out with the active involvement of the Ministry of Defense.
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