“Envimonitor” will cut 40 million Kyiv on air quality //Petr Panteleev, Alexander Vozny //KV collage</p
The Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Kyiv City State Administration (KSCA) decided not to miss the moment and use the 40 million hryvnias provided for in the capital budget for the current year to install two air pollution monitoring posts. These posts in Kyiv will appear as part of the creation of a whole system for monitoring the state of the environment, which, by order of the environmental department, is being implemented by the metropolitan LLC Envimonitor. This company seems to have been founded specifically to create this system: it was registered a few months before the conclusion of the first contract, and its main customer is the environmental department of the capital's administration. The fresh order of two more monitoring posts under martial law puzzled state auditors, but the environmental department could not explain the need for this purchase.
As it became known to KV from the announcement of the ProZorro electronic system, on December 12, 2022, the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Kyiv City State Administration signed an agreement with Envimonitor LLC (*) for the supply and installation of stationary monitoring posts for atmospheric air pollution in Kyiv. The price of the contract was UAH 39.67 million.
According to the contract, Envimonitor LLC must supply, install and put into operation two air pollution monitoring posts by the end of December 2022.
Each post should consist, in particular, of a weather station and an ambient air sampling system of an analyzer to determine the content of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, ozone and benzene in atmospheric air. Each point must be equipped with an air conditioning, ventilation, grounding, warning and remote control system. Also, the items must be connected to the software to transfer data to the server.
Posts are planned to be installed along the avenue. Victory, 97 (Svyatoshinsky district) and st. Kitaevskaya, 22 (Goloseevsky district) with a note that the addresses may change during the work.
In early December, the State Audit Service drew attention to this purchase, which asked for an explanation of the need to order air quality monitoring posts under martial law. In response to this, the environmental department spoke about the importance of obtaining information on air quality, but they could not justify the need to purchase it in the current conditions.
Recall that Envimonitor LLC, commissioned by the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Kyiv City State Administration, has been creating a city system of software and hardware for collecting and processing data on the state of the environment in Kyiv since 2018. Since that time, in addition to the current one, the parties have concluded four agreements. In October 2018, they signed an agreement (price – UAH 2.39 million) for the inventory of sources of environmental pollution in Kyiv. In August 2020, the department ordered the delivery and installation of the first two monitoring posts for UAH 39.73 million, and in September 2020, three more posts for UAH 34.84 million. And in June 2022, the parties decided to use another 2 million hryvnias by concluding an agreement on the maintenance of a system of software and hardware for collecting and processing data on the state of the environment in Kyiv.
Theoretically, there should already be 5 posts in the capital, installed by order of the environmental department of the KSCA, but it is not yet possible to check their work – the link to it posted on the website of the environmental department of the KSCA does not work.
Recall that, according to the target program “Ecological well-being for 2019-2021”, 80 million hryvnias (40 million hryvnias in 2020 and 2021) were supposed to be created in these years for the creation of an urban system of software and hardware for collecting and processing data on the state of the environment in Kyiv. Two years ago, the Department for Ecology and Natural Resources of the Kyiv City State Administration explained to the CV that the creation of this system is planned in two phases. As part of the first stage, a data collection and processing center was to be created, technical software, two stationary air monitoring posts and one calibrator were to be installed. As part of the second phase, install some more software and build 19 stationary and one mobile air monitoring post.
Over the years, the appetites of city officials for spending on this system have grown significantly. The city program “Environmental well-being for 2022-2025″ provides for its implementation of another 240 million hryvnias (60 million hryvnias annually). For these funds, it is planned, in particular, to install 12 air quality observation points within four years. wpg_image” width=”1249″ height=”592″ />
In October 2022, the Kyiv City Council supported in the first reading a draft decision on approving the State Monitoring Program for the protection of atmospheric air in the Kyiv agglomeration. This document, as if in confirmation of the current program of environmental well-being, provides for the continuation of the creation of the “Urban system of software and hardware for collecting and processing data on the state of the environment” and the expenditure for this during 2022-2025 of the same 240 million hryvnias. With these funds, as indicated in the draft decision, it is planned to install three monitoring posts for four years, while the last annex to the document refers not to 12, but to 17 points. Why their number differs in different sections of the document is not specified.
Earlier, KV reported that in parallel with the creation by the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Kyiv City State Administration of the city system of software and hardware for collecting and processing data on the state of the environment in Kyiv, another air monitoring system is being introduced in the capital at the expense of budgetary funds. It is called the System for Obtaining Measurement Parameters about the State of the Environment and the Internal Environment within the Concept of the Internet of Things and is being created by the Informatics utility company. Each of these systems draws huge amounts of money from the budget, while little is said about their functionality, and the expediency of their creation raises questions. The expert community believes that it would be enough to modernize existing systems, in particular, the Central Geophysical Observatory. Boris Sreznevsky than now to create something new from scratch.
And while hundreds of millions of hryvnias from the capital budget are being spent on attempts to establish air quality monitoring in the capital, this quality continues to deteriorate relentlessly, and government offices are not so willing to talk about it. Deputies of the Kyiv City Council, public activists and experts have repeatedly pointed out that the residents of the capital periodically suffer from smog, the city is increasingly included in the global anti-ratings due to air pollution. The reasons for this situation “on the surface” are a huge amount of transport, the Energia waste incineration plant, a number of hazardous industries, metropolitan thermal power plants, etc.
Let us also remind you that in previous years, the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Kyiv City State Administration did not successfully cope with the implementation of the Environmental Well-Being Program, despite the fact that officials receive multi-billion dollar funding for relevant activities. For example, during 2020, on the implementation of this program, the specialized department of the Kyiv City State Administration disbursed 1.85 billion hryvnias of the budget, thanks to which 88.3% of the planned activities were completed. However, the implemented measures had little in common with the development of the ecology sphere – these are mainly the usual maintenance of beaches, parks, treatment facilities, and the purchase of planting materials. At the same time, the year before last, officials did not develop a project for the organization of the Partisan Glory landscape park, did not build a complex for the processing and disposal of plant waste and an aeration system for Lake Lebedino, but money in the budget for the reconstruction and improvement of Kyoto Park and Dolobets Island . no money was even pledged.
According to the Youcontrol analytical system, Envimonitor LLC was registered in 2018 in Kyiv. The authorized capital is UAH 153.89 thousand. The main activity is research and experimental development in the field of other natural and technical sciences. The founders and ultimate beneficiaries are Oleg Vovchenko and Viktor Belov (head), registered in Sevastopol.
It should be noted that the full namesake of Viktor Yuryevich Belov in the extraordinary parliamentary elections of 2014 ran for the party of the ex-Minister of Defense Anatoly Gritsenko “Civil Position”. This candidate at that time held the position of Deputy Chairman of the Board, PJSC “Ukrainian Institute for the Design and Development of Information and Communication Infrastructure” Diprosvyaz “. Oleksiy Hrytsenko (son of Anatoly Hrytsenko) has been a volunteer environmental advisor to the Mayor of Kyiv, Vitaliy Klitschko, since April 5, 2021.
Based on the results of participation in public procurement, Envimonitor LLC concluded 6 contracts for almost UAH 120 million. The largest customer is the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Kyiv City State Administration, which awarded him 5 of the above contracts with a total value of UAH 118.66 million. These contracts provide for the creation of the famous urban system of software and hardware for collecting and processing data on the state of the environment in Kyiv. For the sixth consecutive year, Envimonitor from the Chernivtsi Regional Center for Hydrometeorology for the supply of equipment for organizing atmospheric air monitoring for ozone content for almost UAH 700,000.
Oleg Vovchenko is the owner and co-owner of four more companies, of which two – Enviproject LLC and Envi Company LLC – are also active participants in public procurement. At the same time, their customers are exclusively capital KP and PJSC “AK” Kievvodokanal. Thus, Enviproject LLC signed 11 contracts, the largest customer is PJSC AK Kyivvodokanal, and Envi Company LLC signed 2 contracts – both with KP Zhilinveststroy-UKB.
By the way, LLC Envy Company, together with Oleg Vovchenko, is owned by Ruslan Tsyuman, who in 2015 unsuccessfully ran for the Kyiv City Council from the Renaissance party (previously owned by the late Kharkiv mayor Gennady Kernes and ex-regional Vitaly Khomutinnik, since 2019 the party has actually ceased to operate).
The Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Kyiv City State Administration has been headed by Alexander Vozny since February 11, 2021 (in the collage on the right). The work of this structure has been controlled by the Deputy Chairman of the Kyiv City State Administration Petr Panteleev (on the collage on the left) for more than seven years.
* Envimonitor LLC (EDRPOU code: 42285420)
As subordinates of Panteleev in 2020 2019, they “developed” the capital’s housing and communal services
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