Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has issued a decree dismissing the director of the Department of Environmental Protection and Climate Change Adaptation of the Kyiv City State Administration, Oleksandr Voznyi, effective May 30.
A scanned copy of this document was published on the website of the Kyiv City Council.
Source: kyivcity.gov.ua.
It is noted that the dismissal took place “by agreement of the parties,” but the chair under this official has been shaking for more than a year. He was also opposed by environmental activists from the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center. According to their information, the first criminal case against Oleksandr Voznyi became known in the spring of 2024. At that time, he was notified of suspicion of committing a criminal offense under Part 2 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – official negligence that caused grave consequences.
This department director received a second suspicion a few months later, in June of last year. He was accused of causing almost UAH 2.8 million in losses in waste removal. Law enforcement officers found out that in 2022, the Department of Environmental Protection of the Kyiv City State Administration entered into a number of contracts with a contractor for the collection, transportation, storage and recycling of used tires in the city. At that time, one of the specialized commercial organizations won the right to remove waste.
At the same time, at Voznyi's direction, the contracts were concluded at prices significantly higher than market prices, and their total value amounted to almost UAH 4 million. In addition, out of the full list of specified works, the contractor only carried out the transportation of tires to storage facilities.
The icing on the cake was the serving of a suspicion of systematic bribery to Voznyi in December last year. At the time, the National Police reported that the head of the department, together with his accomplices, had organized a criminal scheme. They demanded bribes for issuing free permits for emissions of pollutants from stationary sources into the air.
The official created artificial obstacles for entrepreneurs to obtain such permits free of charge: the submitted packages of documents were unreasonably returned for revision. After that, employees of the company controlled by the bribe-taker offered entrepreneurs their intermediary services to obtain the necessary permits.
As a reminder, in 2023, the police already uncovered a corruption scheme of an official from the Kyiv City State Administration who systematically demanded bribes for issuing permits for emissions of pollutants into the air and other permits.
EcoPolitic also talked about the searches that took place on January 17 at the premises of the Department of Environmental Protection and Climate Change Adaptation of the KCSA and Kyivzelenbud to check their activities in the overhaul and reconstruction of parks and recreation areas.
