The exchanger of the Armed Forces troops, suspected of stealing funds during the creation of the bell system, chose a preventive measure - 2 million UAH of pledge and an electronic bracelet. This was reported by the press service of the Specialized Anti -Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) on Tuesday, March 4.
“On March 4, the investigating judge of the Supreme Anti -Corruption Court (VAKS) supported the position of the SAP prosecutor and applied a measure of restraint to the exchanger of the AFSU, suspected of seizing budgetary funds during the creation of an automated system of the Center for Operational Management of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” it reads.
The court partially granted the request of detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), agreed by the SAP prosecutor, and applied the following precautionary measures to Major General:
- payment of collateral in the amount of UAH 2 million;
- wearing an electronic bracelet;
- arrival in a detective, prosecutor, court for the first call;
- prohibition to leave Kyiv and Kyiv region without the permission of the investigator, prosecutor or court;
- informing investigators about changing your place of residence or work;
- refrain from communicating with other suspects and witnesses in the case;
- transfer to a foreign passport and other documents for traveling outside the country.
According to the investigation, in 2016, the Ministry of Defense concluded a contract for the development of a system with a commercial company that had no experience in the creation of software. For four years, the technical task has changed 13 times, which led to an increase in the cost of work by UAH 300 million. Without proper justification, the number of experimental samples of the system was increased from 4 to 12, which caused additional costs of UAH 115 million.
Subsequently, it turned out that the developed system did not meet the technical requirements: it was not compatible with NATO protocols and had no integration with other military systems. In addition, a large part of the software remained unused-only 10 were sold from the laid out of 200 information and calculation tasks.
Despite these significant shortcomings, at the end of 2022 the "Bell" system was officially adopted by the Armed Forces. In 2024, it was planned to allocate additional funding for its improvement, which, according to NABU, indicates a possible attempt not only to hide corruption abuse, but also to continue them.
During the investigation, detectives and prosecutors encountered attempts to prevent the circumstances of the case. In particular, the key documentation on the financing and development of the project was hidden, and the responsible persons tried to speed up the work and even modernized the system for free to make it similar to the original plan. However, due to fundamental errors in architecture, the "Bell" system has proven to be under -working and unsuitable for efficient use.
The investigation in this case is ongoing, and investigators continue to collect evidence to prosecute the perpetrators.
