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Corruption in the Ukrainian military-industrial complex has reached new heights, exhausting security forces and forcing the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) to step in.
Ukraine allocated 1 trillion UAH, roughly $24 billion, for military procurement and weapons production this year. This significant growth in military spending, coupled with the nature of defense contracts which are typically classified for security reasons, obscuring details about companies, executives, and owners, has fueled corruption.
Earlier this year, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) uncovered a scheme that cost the state 246 million UAH, close to $6 millions, through inflated prices and fund diversions. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) also exposed a defense enterprise director who misappropriated nearly 4 million UAH, around $100,000.
Such scams often involve shell companies, overpricing – like manipulating component costs to exceed the 25% profit cap for drone makers -, and suspicious transfers that banks previously failed to flag during routine checks.
The failure of agencies like the NBU, as well as the SBU and other security forces, which by the way could be a sign of deeper corruption, forced the NBU to step in.
On August 12, the NBU issued a letter titled “Clarifications and Recommendations Regarding the Implementation of Measures by Banks in the Field of Financial Monitoring and Currency Supervision” to banks in Ukraine. Details of the letter only began to surface in Ukrainian media after September 11.
In the letter, the bank criticizes past lapses in oversight and lays out mandatory steps to prevent abuses. It also warns of penalties for non-compliance, including fines, and states it will evaluate banks’ adherence during future inspections.
“The National Bank emphasizes that the situation with banks’ improper performance of functions as subjects of primary financial monitoring and agents of currency supervision regarding financial operations related to the procurement of military and defense goods is unacceptable and prevents the timely receipt by the specially authorized body of information about suspicious operations or activities for the implementation of measures provided by law,” the letter reads.
The letter set a series of strict requirements for banks when it comes to dealing with the military-industrial complex, including: analyzing client operations thoroughly; scrutinizing documents and assets; handling classified information securely, and reporting suspicious activity.
The requirements sparks worries of overreach. The NBU is an independent body, but ultimately, it is under the direct influence of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his allies in the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament. Considering this, it is very possible that upper echelons of the regime in Kiev are using the bank to solidify their grip on the military-industrial complex under the pretext of fighting corruption.
The intervention of the NBU could ultimately create more problems, not only because it offers new opportunities for corruption on higher levels, but also because it will simply slow down defense contracts.
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where are all the nafo faggots ready to save ukraine gone to?
putin’s betrayal of his alawite allies and iran is as big as an elephant, but pezeshkian and the ayatollahs ignore the elephant in the room. i wish the day would come when the jewish elephant (russia) will be crushed and devoured by hyenas and worms. for putler, it’s right if they first rape a woman from an alawite village and then come and burn the village down. serbia and armenia will soon be members of nato and then serbs and armenians in russia will burn villages and rape women.
you moron, syrians could not save syria but you expect russia and iran to save them?
for the whites who still don’t understand the jewish project in ukraine, former ukrainian fm kubela declared : ’ ukraine may have to open it’s borders to migrants from népal, vietnam,bangladesh, india and the philippines. the departure of men aged 18-22 from ukraine will have far reaching conséquences.’