Parliament backs appointment of Rivne Oblast governor as State Property Fund head.

The parliament approved the appointment of Rivne Oblast Governor Vitalii Koval as the new head of the State Property Fund, lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said on Nov.

21. The position of the State Property Fund's chief was previously held by Rustem Umerov, who was appointed as the new defense minister in early September. "I am finishing my more than four-year tenure as the Rivne Oblast governor," Koval wrote on his Telegram channel.

"The next head of the oblast will effectively and appropriately continue the work of our professional team, part of which will remain to work in the oblast." Before he was appointed the Rivne Oblast governor in 2019, Koval worked in the banking industry between 2004 and 2006 and headed various enterprises between 2006 and 2019. He is a member of President Volodymyr Zelensky's Servant of the People party.

An investigation by Bihus.info from 2020 discovered that the road construction company BBB Montazh, headed at the time by Koval, won the largest specialized tenders in Rivne Oblast, even though it was registered in Kyiv. Another company of which Koval was a director, Investtradeservice, reportedly understated the value of its products in customs declarations, allowing it to avoid paying taxes, media outlet Chetverta Vlada reported.

Investigation: Czech parts make their way to Russian military helicopters despite sanctions Editor's Note: This story is based on an investigation by Trap Aggressor, a project by Ukrainian NGO StateWatch, which advocates for principles of good governance.

The investigation's author, Roman Steblivskyi, is a researcher at StateWatch.

This story has been translated from Ukrainian and edited b...