<img src="/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/09d23e5a873d92fd1357f4f1f0716e71.jpg" class="wpg_image" title="Corrupt "marriage of convenience" of Nikolai Lukashuk and HLE in the regional council: everything is amicable, the calculation is from the budget" width="972" height="462" alt="Mykola Lukashuk, Nikolai Lukashuk, OPL, Gennady Gufman, Dnepr" in the regional council: everything is amicable, the calculation is from the budget
In the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council, a coalition of the pro-government party and “fragments” of the Opposition Platform for Life has formed. The curator of the majority is the chairman of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional Council Nikolay Lukashuk. Until November 25, 2022, his right-hand man was officially Gennady Gufman, the head of the second faction in terms of the number of deputies and the leader of the regional cell of the Opposition Platform for Life. The day before, under pressure from the outraged public, Medvedchuk's “viceroy” in the Dnipropetrovsk region wrote a letter of resignation from the post of first deputy head of the regional council.
The regional deputies accepted the resignation of the first deputy, but in fact Gufman and his “deputies of the banned party” continue to vote for the decisions necessary for Lukashuk. It is easy to see what – just look at the minutes of the meetings and the roll-call vote of the deputy corps. Why do the regional deputies from the presidential party and Nikolai Lukashuk need this alliance, although it actually guarantees the desired result at the sessions, but from now on a very toxic alliance? – Yes, it's just profitable. Not even just profitable, but VERY profitable! Details are in the first part of the Explorer's investigation.
According to the investigation, last year alone, more than 700 million hryvnias were spent from the budget of the Dnipropetrovsk region to replenish the authorized funds of the municipal enterprises of the regional council. A significant part of these funds are injections either into frankly useless structures, such as concert directorates and idle small business support centers, and even more into the good old “schemes” in the field of construction and housing and communal services. A special place is occupied by the Dneproteploenergo utility company.
More than 100 million hryvnias from the budget went down the drain in a year and a half. Nikolai Lukashuk's trumpet?
KP “Dnepropetloenergo” is an artificially created monopoly in the market of thermal services by the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council. At one time, boiler houses of all budgetary organizations, which had previously been quite successfully operating independently, were driven under its wing: local administrations, schools and boarding schools, hospitals, sanatoriums, cultural centers, etc.
The investigation notes that with a huge staff of 350 people, declared on the official website of the enterprise, KP “Dneproteploenergo” also has an extensive system of more than a dozen subsidiaries: “Zakhidteploenergo”, “Skhidteploenergo”, “Pivnichteplomerezha”, “Vasilkivka Teploenergo” etc. With the beginning of the chairmanship of the regional council of Nikolai Lukashuk, tens of millions of budget hryvnias are supposedly sent to the authorized capital of Dneproteploenergo and its subsidiaries at almost every session.
Investigators give several specific examples for 2021.
According to these materials, last year alone, the budgets of the head thermal enterprise and its subsidiaries were replenished by UAH 87 million from the state budget.
As noted in the investigation, the structures of Dneproteploenergo do not heat the housing stock, but simply collect money from budget organizations. Absolutely all of his clients are budget organizations, the payment of utility bills for which is a protected item of financing from the budget of the community and therefore has 100% financing and payment. That is, unlike enterprises that heat commercial customers and the population, the thermal workers of the Regional Council do not have a problem with debts for the supplied heat. That is, theoretically, the money raised should be more than enough to pay for Naftogaz services, salaries, and profit.
“In fact, we have an enterprise with bloated staff (350 people, with numerous subsidiaries) and crazy subsidies from the regional budget,” the investigators say.
Moreover, despite the payments received for their services under a protected budget item, Dneproteploenergo enterprises, as follows from the letter from Naftogaz Trading, “forget” to transfer payments for gas. Payment for blue fuel to the supplier is at a very unfortunate level – from 14 to 30 percent. Corrupt “marriage of convenience” of Mikalai Lukashuk and HLE in the regional council: everything is amicable, settlement from the budget amicably, the calculation is from the budget” />
That is, even with essentially 100% payments for their services and huge delays in paying for gas, the utility monopolist and its subsidiaries are constantly allegedly in a “twisted financial situation” and need regular infusions from the regional budget. Strange, isn't it?
The arithmetic begins to take shape when you figure out how Dneproteploenergo and its subsidiaries spend their money, and it becomes clearer why budget millions “fly out the pipe.” It looks like they just steal tens of millions here.
The investigation claims that only the modest Vasilkivkateploenergo distributes budget contracts to dubious shell companies. This tender is cited as an example: almost half a million hryvnias for “testing automation on boilers” went to the account of Ukrgasengineering. Ukrgasengineering is a defendant in several journalistic investigations as a company that participates in cartel agreements together with clone firms (for example, the prosecutor of the city of Sumy demanded the arrest of the company's property for embezzlement from the budget for more than UAH 100 million in 2016-2019). Meanwhile, Ukrgasengineering received almost 5 million hryvnias from the subsidiaries of Dniproteploenergo this year alone, according to the investigation.
Also in February of this year, KP Dneproteploenergo and its Skhidteploenergo allegedly gave a little more than a million hryvnias to a one-year-old private company from Podgorodny KP Zbutenergoservis LLC for transferring gas meter readings to & # 8230; their own enterprises and more than half a million – for renting (!) equipment for the dispatching of their boiler houses and another 600 thousand to them – for the services of dispatching control of boiler houses. That is, if you think about it: for work that theoretically could easily be organized by internal orders according to its own structure (remember the staff of the enterprise!) And within the framework of the functional duties of employees, 1.7 million floated from the budget and 0.6 million without a penny went for renting equipment that enterprises need on a permanent basis, the investigation says.
Another, albeit small, but entertaining expense item for regional thermal workers is legal support.
As an example, the investigators cite Oleksandr Vasilyevich Gladiy’s receipt of a contract for legal support from Dneproteploenergo’s subsidiary, Vasylkivkateploenergo, in the amount of UAH 258,000 per year. He… OPPL candidate in the last local elections.
Vasylkivkateploenergo recently ordered UAH 275,000 (!) of legal services from a company with the loud name ISU Lawers, which is headed by Ivan Gerasimenko, already well-known in the media. This is a person “from the orbit” of a colleague in Lukashuk's faction.
And the most paradoxical thing is that even relatively small purchases from thermal workers of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council occur, to put it mildly, with great oddities.
The investigation states that in September of this year, Zakhidteploenergo is purchasing two NAVI 100 BC boilers for UAH 484,000 from Abetka Teplo LLC. This company is “registered” in an ordinary residential apartment in Dnipro and is an intermediary.
Let's go further: the manufacturer's price for water heaters OKC 200 NTR/BP is 29 thousand hryvnia, DRAZICE OKC 500 NTR/BP is 52 thousand hryvnia. And from Abetka Teplo these two boilers cost Zakhidteploenergo UAH 168,000. This is also twice the market price. Another example: the utility company Skhidteploenergo buys a Lowara 1SV19F011T pump from Abetka Teplo for 47,599 hryvnias. Distributors have a little more than 25 thousand of the same product. Thus, it can be argued that only “small” «boilers-boilers-pumps”(!) enterprises of thermal workers of the regional council are overpriced by 2-3 times.
Investigators also claim that many enterprises of the regional council regularly “buy” from this, to put it mildly, not cheap, intermediary.
And so – in almost every tender and in every purchase of the utility monopoly “Dniproteploenergo” and its subsidiaries. And this is only in that part, the doubtfulness of which is clear even to an ordinary observer.
“By multiplying the number of purchases by the number of subsidiaries, you can understand why constant subsidies are needed and in whose pockets they end up. Is it worth saying that tens of millions of hryvnias fly away every year “to the circle” “into the pipe” of thermal engines?” the investigators note.
There are questions to the leadership of the regional council not only about Dneproteploenergo, with the help of which, it seems, they created a huge, constantly in need of budget “firewood” and receiving them, a real corruption boiler. Practically on the surface, wherever you go, there are other “economic activities” of public utilities that contradict the logic.
The investigation refers to the infamous Pharmacia KP, which was previously featured in drug sales scandals at inflated prices. But this KP allegedly has another area of activity – leasing premises (usually in hospitals and outpatient clinics) for pharmacies and pharmacy points.
“Only the official revenue from the commissioning of almost 14,000 square meters of quite commercially attractive facilities is very modest. Namely, only about 60,000 UAH!. Think again: fourteen thousand square meters in specialized medical institutions bring in revenues of less than 4 UAH. per square meter. We think that at such a price, the enterprise should have a queue of tenants even in such a difficult time…
However, the winner in the auctions of KP Pharmacia in most cases is the same pharmacy chain: LLC Linda -Pharm. For example, a pharmacy kiosk in a hospital of regional subordination and regional significance, with an impressive “human flow”, on Kosmicheskaya Street in the Dnipro, KP “Pharmacy” rents at a price & # 8230; 1500 hryvnia per month. And such “bargain prices” are actual for all objects, ”the investigation says.
If other participants appear at the auctions, Linda-Pharm LLC “knocks down” the contract in the courts. The winning entrant is also being physically prevented from occupying the premises, investigators say.
The farms of the regional council cannot do without the good old nepotism. So, on June 1, 2021, the utility company of the regional council “Exploitation of Automobile Roads” is changing its head. Nikolai Lukashuk appoints a certain Ptitsyn Denis Yevgenievich as acting temporarily (for a period of two months). An amazing coincidence: a person with that name is friends with the brother of the head of the regional council, as evidenced by the pages on social networks. Moreover, judging by the same social networks, Denis Ptitsyn “reposts” outright anti-Semites and separatists, and is also a fan of numerous conspiracy theories.
From the command post temporarily entrusted to him, Denis Ptitsin, judging by the data of the registers, has not left until now. By the way, despite the loud name “Operation of Automobile Roads”, this enterprise seems to have little to do with the maintenance and repair of the road surface. In any case, judging by open data, the company does not conduct large-scale contracts and purchases. Sometimes he rents cars for transportation, sometimes he makes minor repairs and buys gasoline. Almost all purchases are up to UAH 50,000, which allows you to bypass the public procurement system and conclude contracts directly with your own chosen contractor. It is not too clear, for example, why an enterprise nominally engaged in road maintenance needs marketing services. Nevertheless, it purchased them from Google LLC. Because despite these services, practically nothing is known about the activities of Ptitsyn's enterprise as a whole. The Youcontrol portal finds the KP run by Denis Ptitsin rather unreliable. For some reason, he, like many KP DOS, needs lawyer services, which his company purchases from one of its founder's favorite contractors – from the Phoenix law firm. By the way, this law office, which has owners from Krivoy Rog, began to take contracts from many enterprises of the regional council exactly with the beginning of the term of Nikolai Lukashuk and the deputies of the 8th convocation. For a year and a half – almost 2 million hryvnia.
These are just a few examples, of which there are disproportionately more with a more thorough analysis only in scarce open sources. It seems that everything was done quite skillfully and with competent calculation. Dozens of KPs, thousands of purchases – somewhere for impressive amounts, somewhere for “small money”, – for sure, NABU and SAPO now have bigger and more important cases, and in some sense easier to investigate them.
But, unfortunately, the 14 billion budget of the Dnipropetrovsk region is “washed out” by hundreds of millions: somewhere on dubious services, somewhere on lost profits, somewhere on the purchase of “golden” boilers and on numerous pre-threshold purchases that with the introduction of martial law, it became even easier. Apparently, this is precisely why Nikolai Lukashuk needs a solid, stable majority, even with an HLE, or even with a damn bald head – in total, billions are at stake, which can be “mastered” safely and practically without any risk. For now, anyway.
And it is sad that even the war could not stop the chronic and, apparently, successfully inherited epidemic of kleptomania in the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council. The fact that it is absolutely immoral and criminal in a warring country is even unnecessary to say. Silently watching how political corpses from the party, supported by the aggressor country for many years, help the new “leaders” “financially succeed” is blasphemous in no way less.
Therefore, the investigation will continue, and about others exploits of the “regional fighters for corruption” and what Gennady Gufman and his “prohibited deputies” get from the regional leadership in exchange for pushing the right decisions, we will tell in our next article.
Gleb Ivanov
Pro-Russian HLE MP Gennady Gufman from Bratislava continues to influence the Dnepropetrovsk Regional Council
Head of the HLE of Dnepropetrovsk Region Gennady Gufman unexpectedly transferred construction companies to a partner
Why did Korban and Filatov spend millions on accomplices of the occupiers