About this reported the Security Service of Ukraine.
"Cyber specialists of the Security Service of Ukraine collected indisputable evidence of the guilt of the officials of the National Union of Architects of Ukraine, who engaged in fraud in the construction sector of Ukraine. The attackers "issued" new certification certificates for architects, although they did not have the right to do so. In order for the scheme to work, they illegally changed the personal data of the architects in the previously issued certificates," the law enforcement officers claim.
Thus, the SBU declares that the representative of the National Union of Architects, on the instructions of the head, gave his electronic key for entering the electronic system to a third person. Thanks to this, they allegedly carried out unauthorized intervention and changed personal data in the old certificates of architects from the occupied Crimea to the necessary "newly created ones".
"On the basis of the collected evidence, the head of the National Union of Architects of Ukraine, his deputy and the IT specialist, who directly carried out the intervention, have been charged under Part 2 of Art. 361 (unauthorized interference in the operation of information (automated), electronic communication, information and communication systems, electronic communication networks by prior collusion by a group of persons) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine," the post concludes.
The deputy head of the Architectural Chamber of NSAU, Anna Kyriy, commented on the events to PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA: "The president of the Union of Architects, an old man, is being turned into a cyber-criminal. Today, in the Telegram channel of the SBU, I saw that they downloaded screenshots from a mobile phone. Where people say we want to extend the certificate, he says "yes, we will extend it." Is this evidence? This is some bullshit, sucked out of your finger, and this disgrace must be stopped."
At the same time, the SBU incorrectly disclosed the information to whom exactly its representatives announced the suspicion. The message mentions the head of the National Union of Architects of Ukraine, his deputy and an IT specialist. Kyrii clarified that it is not about the representative of the union, but the secretary of the certification commission, since the case concerns the issuing of certification certificates to architects.
In addition, on February 7, the National Union of Architects was searched again. Kiriy announced this on her Facebook page.
The architect explained that the systemic pressure on the union and the searches are related precisely to the position of its members regarding draft law No. 5655.
"There is a systematic effort to destroy the Union of Architects and block our activities and the activities of architects in general, because people cannot renew their certificates. The Union of Architects cannot enter them into the system. If the Ministry of Regions could take away these delegated powers (on the attestation of architects and entering them into the register), then they should do so by order of the Minister, following the results of the inspection or other legal procedures. But there is an order in place, and according to the order, they cannot do that because there is no violation. Therefore, the Ministry of Regions is afraid to officially take away the delegated powers from the unions, and they started taking these actions to take away the opportunity to certify architects and keep a register. All this is done because of our position on draft law No. 5655. No one doubts this. This is done in order to show everyone what a wonderful anti-corruption law we have, and only the corrupt are protesting against it. And from the Union of Architects, they are now molding corrupt people for far-fetched cases. And the same for city mayors."
Kyrii added that the searches were conducted on the basis of a criminal case initiated on the alleged forgery of certificates. "But in fact there is no forgery and there cannot be any fake certificates. Each architect has a personal case, each takes exams and for each architect a decision is made to issue certificates based on the protocols of the attestation commission. Each certificate has a state form with a unique number, a state model and there can be no forgeries," the architect stressed.
According to her, access to the registers in the Union of Architects was currently blocked in manual mode, the electronic system started working with failures in the summer. In December, the system practically did not work, now its operation is completely blocked. And it is precisely this failure of the SBU that is somehow connected with the forgery of certificates.
"We have a very small number of certified architects in relation to the country's population. The indicator is one of the lowest in Europe. And the situation is very bad. And to destroy the public institution of architects, while at the same time they are talking about reconstruction, to block the receipt of a certificate by an architect whose validity period has expired, because the Association of Architects cannot validate his certificate, and no other mechanism has been proposed. A corruption scheme is being built in order to privately go to the Ministry of Regional Construction, to bow down to someone, to pay some kind of bribe, because the Union of Architects has actually blocked this function in manual mode. See how our digitization works, you can safely intervene in the system manually," said the architect.
Kyrii added that the Union of Architects is currently expecting a veto on the adopted draft law No. 5655, because today it may be the only possible mechanism when it will be possible not to take the conflict to a new level, but to develop such a draft law that would accommodate both local self-government and central authorities, and the professional community, and the public.
"And now the "reform" provides that all powers are transferred to a single large ministry, united with the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure, it still owns the electronic system, it intervenes in manual mode, it gives everyone access to the market or not, it distributes funds - and we have such a law, which is designed to fight corruption? This is a shame during the war," Kyrii said.