A district council member in Prykarpattia was imprisoned for embezzling 250,000 UAH intended for the renovation of a lyceum.

The Halytskyi District Court found the former head of the Department of Education and Tourism of the Rohatyn District State Administration, Ivan-Frankivsk Regional Council deputy from the "European Solidarity" party, Vasyl Trach, guilty of embezzling 250,000 UAH during the renovation of the Verkhniy Lypytskyi Lyceum. He, along with the head of the contracting company "Standart IF," Oksana Ilnytska, was sentenced to five years in prison.

As stated in the court ruling issued on January 15, in June 2019, the head of the Department of Education and Tourism of the Rohatyn District State Administration, Vasyl Trach, made an agreement with Oksana Ilnytska, the director of "Standart IF," for the insulation work on the facades of the lyceum in Verkhniy Lypytsia, Rohatyn district. They signed a contract for 250,000 UAH and throughout the year approved acts of completed work for this amount, even though no renovations were carried out at the lyceum. Subsequently, Oksana Ilnytska legalized the funds received from the state budget and withdrew them from her company's bank account.

Former deputy of the Ivan-Frankivsk Regional Council from the "Batkivshchyna" party, Vitaliy Denega, was also implicated in the scheme. He was the one who submitted documents from "Standart IF" to the Department of Education and Tourism of the Rohatyn District State Administration and even signed them in place of Oksana Ilnytska on one occasion. However, after the verdict was announced, the court acquitted him.

During the court hearing, witness testimonies were heard – the accountant of the Department of Education and Tourism of the Rohatyn District State Administration confirmed the payments made for the acts of completed work by "Standart IF," and the director of the Verkhniy Lypytskyi Lyceum stated that no insulation work was carried out at the school in 2019. The repairs were only completed in August 2020.

After reviewing all the case materials, Judge Mykola Merhel found Vasyl Trach and Oksana Ilnytska guilty of embezzling someone else's property on a large scale and sentenced them to five years of imprisonment, along with a two-year ban on holding positions and engaging in activities related to the performance of organizational and administrative functions in enterprises, institutions, and organizations of all forms of ownership. An appeal may be filed against the ruling.

Additionally, it is worth noting that Vasyl Trach is a deputy of the Ivan-Frankivsk Regional Council from the "European Solidarity" party. In 2021, he resigned from his position as head of the Department of Education and Tourism of the District State Administration and currently works as the deputy head of the Department of Education of the Rohatyn City Council.