Poroshenko dismisses Hladkovsky as NSDC first deputy secretary
He stated this at a meeting of the Council for Regional Development of Mykolaiv region on Monday, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.
"This morning, before departing [for Mykolaiv], I have signed a decree on Oleh Hladkovsky's dismissal," he said.
The president said that Hladkovsky had been removed from the post of chairman of the interdepartmental commission on military and technical cooperation and export control.
"The president, of course, is not a court, and I am not a judge, and my statement is certainly not a verdict, but my task and duty is to create conditions so that people believe in the integrity and impartiality of an objective investigation, so that everyone can be convinced that in such situations, if there is a proof of fault, any post, connections, names or long-standing acquaintances with the president will not save anyone. All are equal before the law," Poroshenko said.
On February 25, journalists of the Nashi Hroshi (Our Money) program disclosed a "long-term scheme of laundering hundreds of millions of hryvnias" from the Ukrainian defense sector. According to journalists, Ihor Hladkovsky, the son of NSDC First Deputy Secretary Oleh Hladkovsky, is allegedly involved in the scheme. Later, Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau NABU reported that firms appearing in the investigation of Bihus.info journalist Lesia Ivanova are the objects of inquiry by NABU detectives.
Hladkovsky rejected the allegations of corruption and appealed to the NABU and the Prosecutor General's Office with the request to verify the facts contained in the journalist investigation. He also requested that during the probe into the investigated facts he be suspended as first deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and chairman of the interdepartmental commission on military and technical cooperation and export control. President Petro Poroshenko supported the request.
Subsequently, Ukroboronprom reported that Director of Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau Oleksiy Babich and Director of Izium Instrument-Making Plant Serhiy Filonenko had also been removed from office.
The Verkhovna Rada instructed the interim investigative commission probing corruption in the army to verify as soon as possible the facts of abuse at the Ukroboronprom State Concern and the involvement of officials in this abuse.
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