An activist accuses the leadership of the phytosanitary inspection
Mark Gordienko
Mark, a social activist and head of the Public Security Council, spoke about the scale of corruption in the phytosanitary sector and accused senior management of the phytosanitary inspectorate of crimes. According to the social activist, the actions of government officials are aimed at destroying businesses and maintaining an entrenched system of extortion. Victoria Prokopenko spoke with Mark about these and other issues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=3&v=R2QH9cylRcY
Mark, what's going on in the phytosanitary sphere? You write and talk about it a lot.
I've written repeatedly on my Facebook page about how corruption figures—Verzhykhovsky, Deputy Chairman of the State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service of Ukraine, and Glushchenko, Chairman of the new State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection—came to Odessa to plot corruption schemes to extort money from businessmen who export grain and timber and import vegetables, bananas, oranges, and other fruits into Ukraine.
These are very serious accusations. Do you have evidence?
I have already published part of the transcript of the audio recording with the employee of the Odessa Phytosanitary Inspectorate, Malyuga, with a client, where he states that the head of the inspection, Mirutenko, and the head of the laboratory, Taras Fritch, came to Odessa to set up work on extorting bribes from exporters and importers, and that they are covered by the regional prosecutor, Govda (Read more about it in the article Roman Govda: How a prosecutor became a fixer) and Shokin himself.
While at first one might think this wasn't the case, subsequent events suggest that the Prosecutor General's Office is indeed on the case.
Questions arise: could Verzhykhovskyi, without the support of the Prosecutor General's Office, have appointed V.N. Mirutenko, previously convicted of theft and document forgery, as head of the Odessa Phytosanitary Inspectorate? Mirutenko was convicted by the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv on December 27, 2013, and received a fine. Why was this corrupt official punished so leniently? Because it was the initiative of the Prosecutor General's Office, whose representative, Olga Tyutyunnik, entered into an official plea agreement with Mirutenko.
Here's the answer to that question. Verzhikhovsky, knowing about Mirutenko's ties to the Prosecutor General's Office, wasn't afraid to commit a crime himself and appoint the convicted Mirutenko to the position without a proper background check.
You once wrote that you had filed a complaint with the Odessa Regional Prosecutor's Office regarding these incidents. Any results?
Despite my appeals on these issues to both the prosecutor's office and Minister of Agriculture Pavlenko, no official investigation has even been launched against Verzhikhovsky. Not only have criminal cases not been opened against Maluga, Mirutenko, and Fritch, but they have been given greater powers. Maluga has been transferred to a laboratory where he is helping Fritch falsify expert assessments, issuing "good" assessments to those who pay and "bad" assessments to those who don't.
Do you have any specific figures or facts?
Of course. On September 17, Fritch discovered live bugs in pine samples in container number MRKU2754805 from the company "Cityus," which is backed by the Deputy Prosecutor of the Odessa Region, Etnarovich. He instructed lab technician Elena Pikash to falsify the analysis and conceal the findings, which is exactly what was done. After this, the "Deputy Control" NGO, headed by MP Podlisny's aide, supervised the collection of samples from "Cityus." The presence of living organisms was recorded in the presence of observers, and only then did Fritch agree to the analysis confirming this.
Do they do this to everyone, or just to specific businessmen?
Fritch and Malyuga had already summoned representatives of companies importing bananas, oranges, and other fruits and extorted money, threatening that otherwise their goods would be found spoiled by laboratory tests and the companies would suffer losses. A representative of Lampochka LLC, for example, responded that if they did so, Lampochka LLC would be transferred to another region for customs clearance, and the regional budget would not receive payments.
Feeling impunity under Fritch's orders, the expert examination deliberately identified weeds in 27000 tons of wheat shipped by the exporter, Inzernoexport LLC, on September 12. The ship is idle, the exporter is suffering losses due to demurrage, and they are extorting money at a rate of $7 per ton.
This trio continues to develop their corrupt schemes. To this end, Fritch hired O.A. Grigorashchenko, who is responsible for falsifying test reports, to oversee the lab technicians, and Mirutenko hired Bomchak, who oversees inspectors at the Odessa port.
On September 25, Mirutenko himself issued an unlawful verbal order through his specialist, Inna Nepomnyashchaya, to inspectors in the Kominternovsky, Belyaevsky, and Ovidiopolsky districts, not to process containerized grain and timber. Instead, the Odessa city office would handle the selection and issuance of phytosanitary certificates.
Essentially, Mirutenko has already committed a crime by organizing official forgery and document counterfeiting. Because certificates must be issued by inspectors in the districts where the containers are loaded.
Is there really no one to restore order and bring the guilty to justice?
Now I think it's clear to everyone that Verzhikhovsky and Agro-Industrial Complex Minister Pavlenko won't fire the convicted Mirutenko, Fritch, and Malyuga, because the Prosecutor General's Office is at the helm of these corruption schemes, and the regional prosecutor, Govda, whom Malyuga refers to in the recordings, is even higher up – he's currently the Deputy Prosecutor General.
I once again appeal to both the Prosecutor General and the Minister of Agriculture, Pavlenko, to initiate a criminal case against Verzhykhovsky, Mirutenko, Malyuga, and Fritch, and to fire them, thereby eliminating these corrupt schemes. Otherwise, the "public safety council" of Odessa will act independently, with the support of the general public and transparency.
Victoria Prokopenko, Bagnet
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