Millions on expensive cars and laptops, hundreds of thousands on PR: how the management of the Deposit Guarantee Fund for Individuals of Ukraine spends money during wartime

In Ukrainian society, corruption scandals seem to erupt almost every week, while social media and the media are filled with reports of various dubious tenders conducted by state and local authorities and services.

For instance, the management of the Deposit Guarantee Fund for Individuals regularly purchases PR and social media promotion services on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube from the same vendor, amounting to hundreds of thousands of hryvnias. The expenditures on expensive cars, equipment, and questionable services are also raising eyebrows.

In April 2023, the private entrepreneur “Petrenko Ivan Nikolaevich” won a tender for targeted promotion of the Deposit Guarantee Fund for Individuals’ materials on social media, valuing their services at over 500,000 hryvnias (12,800 euros). In May 2023, the same entrepreneur secured another tender for similar services, receiving an additional 270,000 hryvnias.

According to the tender documentation, the private entrepreneur was expected to deliver 50 to 150 new followers on these social media platforms and reach tens of thousands with their posts. In reality, videos on YouTube related to the Deposit Guarantee Fund for Individuals garnered only a few dozen to a few hundred views over several months, and Facebook posts received criticism from only around five fund employees. In essence, budgetary funds were misappropriated.

For the promotion of informational video materials about the deposit guarantee system on television, the Deposit Guarantee Fund for Individuals generously allocated 2.27 million hryvnias (58,300 euros).

In August-September 2022, the Deposit Guarantee Fund for Individuals’ management purchased an electric car through an auction for nearly 2.4 million hryvnias (about $64,000). According to documents, a Hyundai IONIQ 5 was bought, whose base model’s current price is approximately $50,000. However, information on the tender’s page indicated that there was an appeal to the State Audit Service to draw attention to corruption risks and the impracticality of this purchase during wartime.

Furthermore, at the end of the previous year, the Fund purchased 200 laptops for 5.8 million hryvnias at an average price slightly above 24,000 hryvnias each. However, the majority of funds are being misused for so-called support services related to the fund’s software, including accounting, auditing, IT, and related services.

The Deposit Guarantee Fund for Individuals spends millions of hryvnias on numerous tenders for the servicing and support of various programs, software updates, and a range of accounting services. Often, even according to publicly available information, the prices for such services are inflated three to five times or more.

According to a source within the Deposit Guarantee Fund for Individuals, a significant portion of companies consistently winning million-hryvnia tenders have some form of connection with the Fund’s management, including the current director-executive of the Deposit Guarantee Fund for Individuals, Svetlana Rekrut, and the deputy director-executive, Natalia Rudukha, who oversees the fund’s accounting and manages IT-related aspects. Some employees of the fund are also implicated in the kickback scheme, as reported by the media.

The UBR publication, citing its own sources, reported that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) are investigating the management of the Deposit Guarantee Fund for Individuals regarding corruption, illicit enrichment, and damage to the state.