Officials were stealing food from prisoners: a ‘Holodomor’ was arranged in prisons

Officials of the State Department for the Execution of Sentences were stealing food from prisoners, declared Serhiy SYDORENKO, First Deputy Head of the State Department for the Execution of Sentences and Major-General of the Internal Service, at a press conference today.

As a UNIAN correspondent reports, this was the first time the new leadership of the agency spoke with journalists after replacing almost the entire upper echelon of the prison service.

S. SYDORENKO reported that the Control and Auditing Department had conducted an audit of financial abuses within the agency. As a result of the audit, it was discovered that in 2009, 468 million UAH had been stolen from the budget as a result of numerous financial machinations by the previous leadership, reported S. SYDORENKO, noting that “...due to the non-supply of food, a genuine ‘Holodomor’ was arranged in Ukrainian prisons”.

For instance, in a colony in the Poltava region, a supplier delivered salt instead of sugar. In total, only 40 tonnes out of 400 tonnes of sugar were delivered to the colony, which is 10% of the plan. To conceal the theft, a simple scheme was used: the management of the correctional colonies concluded agreements with the supplier for the custodial storage of the purchased products. As a result, the goods remained in the warehouse, and the money vanished.

“The State Department spent 6.2 million UAH on the purchase of chicken meat. However, veterinary tests showed that the meat was unfit for human consumption. As a result, 12.6 tonnes of chicken were banned for use in correctional colonies. And nobody asked the seller about the 157,000 UAH spent on their purchase,” stated S. SYDORENKO.

The same story was repeated with canned food. The State Department bought over 483 tonnes from one of the meat-packing plants, paying 14.5 million UAH. However, only 45% of the order reached the colonies. Moreover, 68.2 tonnes turned out to be unfit for consumption. Over 10 million UAH simply settled in someone’s pockets.

At the same time, S. SYDORENKO stated that during the years of Yulia TYMOSHENKO’S rule, “a criminal scheme developed in the penal system, as a result of which officials profited from the theft of food products. In a number of colonies, the situation reached the point of hunger riots. To relieve tension, prisoners were allowed to receive food parcels.”

The theft also had a disastrous effect on the health of prisoners, noted the First Deputy Head of the State Department for the Execution of Sentences. Thus, in 2009, 260 prisoners died from cardiovascular diseases. Nearly 5,000 suffer from tuberculosis.

Over 4 months, the new leadership in the penal system also uncovered the embezzlement of real estate that was on the department’s balance sheet. For example, in the Vinnytsia colony, the physical culture and sports complex for prisoners was declared unsuitable and transferred to private hands, S. SYDORENKO said. He demonstrated photographs to journalists and noted that the building is in excellent condition and is functioning as a private fitness centre.