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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Unofficial payments for occupational safety exams, “certificates by mail,” alleged payments for “favorable” conclusions about workers' deaths. In just ten months of 2026, law enforcement reported at least four suspected corruption schemes in the territorial bodies of the State Labor Service of Ukraine. And the figures involved are not rank-and-file inspectors but regional and interregional leaders. StopCor analyzed open data and tried to determine: what illicit schemes might operate in this system, whether the central office received signals about these violations before law enforcement intervened, and how it responded?
We analyzed publications from law enforcement agencies and the media about alleged abuses in the State Labor Service system during 2026 and found: this year the agency's activities were accompanied by several high-profile corruption scandals across regions—from Khmelnytskyi to Volyn. Here is a brief chronology.
March. The State Bureau of Investigation (DBR) officially reported the detention of the head of the Derzhpratsi office in Khmelnytskyi region along with a private entrepreneur. According to the investigation, the official received forms, attendees’ questionnaires, and money by mail, and returned already signed certificates—without actually testing knowledge.
In just one month DBR investigators documented the unlawful issuance of almost 300 certificates, issued in violation of established procedure.
May. In Mykolaiv region prosecutors detained the first deputy head of the Southern Interregional Department of Derzhpratsi. DBR reported that, according to the investigation, since the beginning of the year the department operated a system of extortion for exams and permits for higher-risk work, and that an illegal currency exchange point was allegedly used to distribute the funds.
According to the Mykolaiv regional prosecutor’s office, between February and May the suspect may have received almost 428 thousand hryvnias from two training centers.
July–October. The high-profile case in the Southwestern Interregional Department (Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, and Chernivtsi regions), which StopCor wrote about back in December of 2025, received a continuation.
In 21 July new suspicions were announced against the department head, two subordinates, and an intermediary, and on 29 October the indictment was forwarded to court. The prosecution lists nine episodes totaling over 450 thousand hryvnias.
Most striking: for $2500, according to the prosecution, a company was ensured a “positive” conclusion of the investigation into an electrician's death, and the deceased was retroactively entered in the protocol as having taken the occupational safety exam.
October. In Volyn the deputy head of the Western Interregional Department was notified of suspicion of extorting $20 thousand for a conclusion that a construction worker who fell from a height died due to his own negligence. The court ordered around-the-clock house arrest; the official has been suspended.
Coincidence or pattern?
Common to all four cases is the alleged receipt of improper benefits for the service’s key functions: testing occupational safety knowledge, issuing certificates and permits, and investigating accidents. In almost every case mentioned above, commissions controlled by department heads and training centers acting as intermediaries are involved.
If the investigators’ versions are confirmed in court, this could mean that the corruption vulnerability in Derzhpratsi is rooted not only in individual actors but in the transparency of the procedures themselves.
And procedures are the responsibility of the center. Interregional departments are territorial bodies of the service itself (this is stated directly in the Regulations on Derzhpratsi), so organizing their work and overseeing it is the direct duty of the central office headed by Derzhpratsi Chair Ihor Degnera:
Thus, clause 7 of the Regulations establishes the status of territorial bodies, noting that Derzhpratsi exercises its powers directly and through territorial bodies created in the prescribed manner (in particular, tasks may be assigned to them on an interregional basis).
Clause 11 defines the powers and duties of the head. In particular, the chair of Derzhpratsi organizes and controls the work of territorial bodies, approves regulations about them, their structure, and budgets.
Formally, the presence of corruption risks in Derzhpratsi leadership is acknowledged: in June a document titled “Derzhpratsi Anti-Corruption Program for 2026–2028” even appeared on the service’s website—likely a draft program.
How did Derzhpratsi leadership react to the detention of officials?
After the exposure of the Prykarpattia scheme, Derzhpratsi announced an internal investigation, an internal audit of procedures that could have been used for abuses, and development of channels for whistleblowers.
As of the publication date we did not find information in open sources about personnel decisions regarding the department heads, so we sent a corresponding inquiry with questions to Derzhpratsi.
As the outlet Parliament.UA notes (quote): “Ihor Degnera sits at the head of Derzhpratsi, but his role in this story is more formal than actual.”
The head himself studied abroad in 2026. As media outlet OBOZ.UA found, Degnera took a seven-day OSINT course in Slovakia and from 19 to 28 June was in Turin for a program on digital transformation of labor inspections.
Questions without answers
Ihor Degnera is not new to the system: he previously headed the service in 2019–2020. What were the results of the internal inspection and audit announced after the Prykarpattia case? Has the procedure for commissions that verify knowledge and investigate accidents been changed? Did leaders who were supposed to supervise the suspects face disciplinary action? And did Derzhpratsi detect any of these schemes itself—before the DBR, police, and SBU did?
The editorial office sent relevant inquiries to Derzhpratsi and DBR.
Recall that earlier there were reports about the exposure of a deputy head of one of the interregional Derzhpratsi departments in Volyn. According to law enforcement, the official demanded 20 thousand dollars for a conclusion about a construction worker’s death that would place responsibility for the tragedy on the worker himself.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "”Посвідчення поштою” і $20 тисяч за висновок про смерть робітника: деталі корупційних скандалів у Держпраці за каденції Дегнери". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: NARDEP 24.
