The violations revealed by the Accounts Chamber may lead to the disruption of the construction of the M12 highway and the resignation of the head of the Avtodor State Corporation Vyacheslav Petushenko.
According to the correspondent The Moscow PostThe Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation has published the results of an audit of the expenditure of budgetary funds for the construction of the Europe-Western China highway – a strategic transport artery for our country.
Particular attention was paid to its part, the Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod-Kazan high-speed highway (M12). The conclusions of the department turned out to be disappointing, they can create serious problems for the head of the customer of the Avtodor Group of Companies Vyacheslav Petushenko.
In total, the route consists of seven stages, at each of which a general contractor was identified back in 2020. Already he, in turn, subcontracted work to many other organizations, and the total cost of building the M12 is over 539 billion rubles.
In two years, billions have already been allocated for the development of projects, the payment of advances and the start of construction. But, as follows from report auditors, it is impossible to determine whether the costs were justified, because the projects for this construction have not yet passed the state examination.
At first, it may seem like a joke: money is already being allocated for projects, but there is no expertise. Who should be responsible for this, and how can one not suspect a corruption component here?
Only from the beginning of 2020 until October 1, 91 billion rubles were allocated to the construction site. Other expenses are also included in the budgets of different levels.
Of these 91 billion rubles, almost 66 billion rubles have already been spent. But auditors were unable to confirm exactly how much was spent. How is this possible? Is it really impossible for the Avtodor State Corporation under the leadership of Petushenko to provide documents and do not report for such colossal money?
The contracts have been distributed. Among the winners are the largest Russian construction companies: Stroytransgaz by Gennady Timchenko (more than 53 billion rubles), Trasstroyinvest represented by the Regional Construction Company (21.2 billion rubles), Avtoban (almost 80 billion rubles) , Transstroymekhanizatsiya (a subsidiary of Arkady Rotenberg’s Mostotrest) 123 billion rubles, and others.
They are general contractors, but the sites still need to be designed. And here is a field for possible fraud. As follows from report, without the positive conclusions of the state expertise, Avtodor has already managed to conclude ten contracts for the design and turnkey construction for 572.8 billion rubles (!). That is, for an amount exceeding the cost of the construction itself!
Isn’t Mr. Petushenko worried that the sections designed without the conclusion of the state expertise will then be driven by cars – and this may end in tragedy, collapse, human deaths?
In addition, a lot of contracts had to be concluded with small companies preparing sites, engineering networks, and so on. Here, for sure, there is an endless field for corruption.
According to the protocol of the procurement committee at the disposal of the editors, a certain company Delta-Stroy LLC was admitted to the tender for preparatory work for the construction of one of the M12 sections. The protocol clearly indicates her address: st. Novoryazanskaya, 38, office IV, room 2, Moscow, 105066.
In Rusprofile, six organizations appear at this address at once, five of which have been liquidated, and one is in the process of bankruptcy. And not a single Delta-Stroy LLC.
Almost all the companies listed there at the time of liquidation did not have employees in the state, did not conduct any real economic activity. Doesn’t this look like a “bay” of one-day companies? And why does Petushenko’s structure easily allow such participants to bid?
But this is still the tip of the iceberg. Avtodor, led by Petushenko, pledged to complete the M12 in 2024. But it is impossible to predict the end of construction, because again there was no state expertise.
There are many other problems as well. For example, projects forgot about U-turns and refueling for electric vehicles.
Another “unfortunate omission” was the timing of the reservation of land for the highway. Only the sites of the first stage of construction out of eight were reserved for subsequent purchase. You can go on and on.
Laurels of Kelbakh
Vyacheslav Petushenko himself has not yet commented on the auditors’ report. Develop a position. It seems that the head of the state-owned company is not afraid to repeat the fate of his predecessor Sergei Kelbakh.
Recall that Kelbakh was fired amid a high-profile corruption scandal. In 2019, a criminal case was opened against him in connection with violations during the construction of the Central Ring Road. Kelbakh was suspected of exceeding his powers, including when transferring an advance payment to the company “Crocus Group” Araz Agalarov.
“Kelbach’s illegal actions entailed grave consequences and significant violations of the legally protected interests of the state, which caused damage in the amount of more than 2 billion rubles,” the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation reported.
According to investigators, Kelbakh unreasonably used budget allocations and funds from the National Wealth Fund, intended for the construction of the Central Ring Road in 2014-2018.
But there was an advance payment in the amount of 2 billion rubles. And here we are seeing “tricks” at the cost of tens of billions of rubles. Is Petushenko really not afraid of anything? ..
By the way, it is not the first time that violations in the work of the Avtodor State Corporation are revealed by the Accounts Chamber under Petushenko. Last year, the company already got into the media because of the spending of budget funds.
As follows from report Accounts Chamber, then claims against Petushenko’s department amounted to several hundred million rubles. One of the points is violations in relation to the construction of the Balashikha bypass, where the cost of cutting down trees alone turned out to be overstated by 132 million rubles. This detour was also supposed to be part of the M12.
The auditors indicated that there are risks of judicial challenging of decisions on the withdrawal of land plots that Avtodor bought at the state expense from an extremely strange (if not more so) office – Take-Look RUS LLC. This alone called into question the future of the entire route.
The deal amounted to 57 million rubles. Avtodor also paid Take-Look RUS for lost profits in the amount of 104 million rubles. Just what was the lost profit, it is not clear. What was this company going to build there, what benefits did it expect?
Take-Look RUS LLC did not have any experience in capital construction, nor did it have the resources and competencies needed for this. The company employs only one employee with 100 thousand rubles of own funds as authorized capital. Yes, and the company was created as if specifically for the construction of a bypass – in 2018.
But thanks to the deal with Avtodor, the company’s profit grew from zero to 138 million rubles in just a year. And just a year later, the profit fell again to 11 million rubles. What luck, especially since only one employee works there!
This is Sergei Kelbakh – did his experience teach Vyacheslav Petushenko nothing?
Another press release of the Accounts Chamber was devoted to the situation with the construction of the Central Ring Road, which under Petushenko, we recall, has risen in price by 15 billion rubles. As follows from reportat the construction site, even the trees and shrubs that were going to be planted along the highway disappeared!
The construction deadlines, as you understand, were also disrupted.
It all started in Petersburg
It is not clear where the relevant officials were looking. For example, the former head of the Federal Road Agency (and now Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation) Andrey Kostyuk. Rumor has it that they are well acquainted with Petushenko and that it was he who lobbied for Kostyuk’s candidacy when he was appointed to the Agency.
They were supposed to work together back in St. Petersburg, where Petushenko previously headed the Directorate for the construction of a transport bypass of the city (the Ring Road or Ring Road).
Kostyuk was first deputy, and then the head of the department of the Sevzapupravtodor agency in St. Petersburg. In 2016, searches were carried out there, the reason for which was a criminal case on abuse of official powers by high-ranking employees of the Federal Road Traffic Agency. Wrote about it “Version”.
It seems that Kostyuk retreated from there to Moscow in time. The directorate could also have questions for Petushenko. Or rather, to the contractor for the construction of the bypass, the Flora company, which received large government contracts under Petushenko. Subsequently, the former owner of Flora, Alexander Korostovtsev, testified in his testimony that each contractor on the ring road pledged 10% of the contract amount in favor of customers. So, as if by chance, they talked about those very “kickbacks”.
A criminal case was also initiated and then dismissed in connection with “abuse of official authority” against the deputy head of the directorate, Vadim Yermilov, and the leading specialist of the directorate, Andrey Rubezhansky: they allegedly rented their cars at inflated prices to representatives of Flora. About wrote “Fontanka”.
This is Andrei Kostyuk, with whom Petushenko worked in St. Petersburg. Does the profile deputy minister of transport, like the minister Vitaly Savelyev himself, prefer not to notice the problems in Avtodor?
Theoretically, the profile officials of the Ministry of Transport and other departments should have had doubts about the decency and professionalism of Mr. Petushenko even at the stage of his work in St. Petersburg. And it certainly could have happened a year ago, when the Accounts Chamber issued the first high-profile report on violations in the work of Avtodor under the leadership of Petushenko.
However, apparently, no conclusions were drawn. And now at stake are hundreds of billions of rubles and the disruption of the construction of a strategic transport artery.
And what do not auditors and officials think about this, but law enforcement officers? ..