Before the hot wave had passed after the publication of a journalistic investigation about flagrant violations at the Academy of the State Fire Service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations by General Vyacheslav Butko, a new alarming letter from the employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations appeared in the editorial mail.
We quote a part of this message: “Thank you for drawing attention to the situation, including with the CASEO (Center for Emergency Rescue and Environmental Operations, aka ECOSPAS), but why not highlight the fact that they write cover areas and branches? And this is a direct violation of the law. And a violation of competition in order to eliminate competitors. “
The authors of the letter name several names that are involved in this dark story with evidence of the elimination of competitors. And the first name is the name of the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, General Viktor Yatsutsenko, then the head of the Department of Civil Defense and Population Protection, General Oleg Manuilo. Again – by no means ordinary employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Even earlier, the authors of the letters to the editor reminded about the criminal case of the head of the Central Asian Economic Society, Bashir Gazdiev, who was accused of tax evasion for 1 billion rubles. By the way, Mr. Gazdiev is directly related to JSC “Reestr”, which is tenaciously connected with the head of AFK “Sistema” Vladimir Yevtushenkov, nicknamed the benefactor of high-ranking employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Is it a dense forest again?
The correspondent of The Moscow Post tried to understand the murky situation.
The other side of competition
As it turned out, someone especially big-headed in the Ministry of Emergency Situations figured out how to get around all sorts of bans, even if they are established by the Government of the Russian Federation. But the procedure for attestation of emergency rescue services (formations) is established precisely by the Government of the Russian Federation.
According to our informants, the emergency services are issued a certificate of attestation for the right to conduct emergency rescue operations. The form and description of the form of such a certificate are approved by the federal executive body authorized to solve problems in the field of protecting the population and territories from emergency situations.
By order of the Ministry of Emergency Situations No. 395 of September 17, 2018, the form of the certificate of attestation for the right to conduct emergency rescue operations was established. And this form did not provide for the description and the possibility of using the second page, second sheet or back of the form.
This is what “smart” heads took advantage of. And already in 2019, the Interdepartmental Commission for Certification of Emergency Rescue Services (teams and rescuers) approved methodological recommendations, paragraph 5 of which (contrary to the Order of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of September 17, 2018 N 395) provides for the use of the reverse sides of certificate forms for records on the presence in the composition of certified emergency rescue services, separate structural subdivisions or several subdivisions – certified emergency rescue teams.
Similarly, the Interdepartmental Commission for Certification of Emergency Services approved methodological recommendations, paragraph 2.12 of which (also contrary to the Order of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of September 17, 2018 N 395) provides for the use of the reverse sides of forms for recording the maximum volumes of oil and oil products spills, localization and the elimination of which can be carried out by a qualified emergency service.
The procedure for attestation of emergency rescue services (groups) is established by the Government of the Russian Federation.
As the authors of the letter testify, the earlier existing similar practice of recording on attestation certificates information about the levels of oil spill volumes, for the elimination of which the formation was allegedly attested, was declared illegal. This certification was terminated at the request of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, as violating Part 1 of Article 15 of the Federal Law of July 26, 2006 No. 135-FZ “On Protection of Competition”.
However, today some participants (at the suggestion of the employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations!) are again using the records on the back of the certificate for unfair competition.
They stubbornly practice records in the certificate of the maximum oil spill volume, illegally dividing the attestation procedure into a single type of oil and oil product spill response work into subtypes depending on the volume of oil and oil spill.
In addition, during certification for the right to carry out work to eliminate oil and oil spills, unscrupulous companies receive unreasonable advantages by combining several territorially separate divisions into a single formation.
With such a combination, the requirements for equipment and staffing are no longer presented to each unit, but to the formation as a whole.
As a result, the record of the maximum volume of oil spill on the reverse side of the form is made based on the capabilities (equipment and staffing) of the entire united formation.
Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, General Viktor Yatsutsenko
Such an entry in the certificate, concerning the maximum capabilities of a single formation deployed in several subjects, allows us to declare the maximum capabilities of each unit in each subject. This is a means of unfair competition.
At the suggestion of Deputy Minister Viktor Yatsutsenko and the Department of Civil Defense and Population Protection, which is headed by General Oleg Manuylo (who, as they write to the editor, was involved in the criminal scandal with hospitals), various changes to laws and by-laws are being promoted.
General Oleg Manuilo
“And in the Department of Rescue Teams of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Minina lobbies and prepares documents for the companies ECOSPAS and TECHNOSPAS,” our sources add in their appeal to the editor.
This is how parsley turns out, in which the devil himself will break his leg, since the problem is superbly “blurred”. And it is covered by high-ranking officers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Motley composition
Further, from a letter to the editor, we learn that in most regions of Russia, CASEO – ECOSPAS does not have the strength and means to ensure the performance of emergency rescue operations.
This is confirmed by the documents of the inspection commission.
In many regions of Russia, ECOSPAS does not have the strength and means to carry out rescue operations.
The absence of rescuers and necessary equipment in the TsASEO-ECOSPAS company is compensated, as our informants write to the editorial office, by the presence in its staff of former and current members of the attestation commission of the Ministry of Energy. Probably, by influencing the IAC commission through them, the company receives any decisions of the commission in its favor. And no one is embarrassed by obvious violations committed both in the certification process itself and in the preparation of documents.
Let us recall once again that in 2009 the FAS already recognized the Ministry of Emergency Situations and ECOSPAS as violators of the antimonopoly law. Fined! But the matter did not progress further than the fine.
And, apparently, it did not seriously affect anything.
Note that CASEO, as such, is not a subdivision of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. However, the leadership of this organization is almost entirely made up of people from the departments of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Chairman of the Board of Directors, Colonel-General Gennady Korotkin worked for almost 7 years as Deputy Minister for Civil Defense, Emergency Situations and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters.
General Gennady Korotkin
And a member of the Board of Directors, Yuri Naryshkin, has been working in the Ministry of Emergency Situations since 1997. And later he took the post of head of the Ural Regional Center.
Nikolai Lityuk, in addition to being the head of the North Caucasus Regional Center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations since 2017, has also become a state adviser.
Gennady Korotkin clearly showed himself as the head of the Federal Logistics Center in the Federal Property Management Agency. As soon as he became the head, he immediately began to reformat the activities of the department: the center suddenly began to engage in construction. For this, an investment agreement was concluded with businessman Miroslav Melnik, and, as they say, Mr. Korotkin made good money on it. The Moscow Post wrote about this.
Mr. Korotkin also ordered the sale of the most liquid and profitable objects, namely: hotels in Veliky Novgorod, Tver and Novosibirsk and the Magadan sanatorium in Sochi.
Sochi, sanatorium “Magadan”
It should be noted that all these objects with great difficulty were returned to state ownership after privatization. The price at which the property was sold again suggests that someone made very good money on this sale.
But the Center for Rescue and Environmental Operations is notable not only for former high-ranking employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations as part of its leadership. The Center itself was founded in 1998. Its main shareholder is JSC Reestr, controlled by AFK Sistema, billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov.
Shared Close Interests
Evil tongues claim that ECOSPAS is allegedly a “cash office for the Ministry of Emergency Situations.”
The Ministry of Emergency Situations is distinguished by a strange love for the Center for Rescue and Environmental Operations. Gives preference when conducting tenders, openly posts positive information about the company on its resources, reporting on how JSC “Center for Rescue and Environmental Operations” works.
Recall that ECOSPAS operates in almost all regions. And his clients are Rosneft, Transneft, Russian Railways, Lukoil, Tatneft, Gazprom, Novatek, etc.
ECOSPAS operates in almost all regions
In addition to contracts with the Ministry of Emergency Situations, CASEO-ECOSPAS also has a full portfolio of obligations to other large state organizations – for example, there are 80 contracts with Russian Railways, 20 contracts with the Ministry of Nature.
It is also known that the company has repeatedly failed to fulfill its obligations to customers. And today is the defendant in six lawsuits. And, nevertheless, continues to receive government contracts.
The Moscow Post has repeatedly written about how billionaire Yevtushenkov made his fortune. In 2016, he was accused of laundering Bashneft shares, appropriated, according to investigators, by the son of the former president of Bashkiria, Ural Rakhimov, and later sold to AFK Sistema.
Mr. Yevtushenkov is actually a monopolist in the mineral water market, since, in addition to his share in Essentuki, he also has his own share in Arkhyz Original.
Vladimir Evtushenkov
Last year, Mr. Yevtushenkov tried to get a share in the capital’s real estate and entered into an open confrontation with the Rostec State Corporation. Then a subsidiary of AFK Sistema filed a lawsuit for disagreement with the results of the auction for the sale of the property of the Moscow Machine-Building Enterprise (MMP) named after V.I. Chernyshev. But Rostec then gave preference to those with whom the deal was more profitable …
But let’s get back to the relationship between the Ministry of Emergency Situations and ECOSPAS.
Today, CASEO-ECOSPAS (recall, its abbreviated name stands for “Center for Rescue and Environmental Operations”) is going through hard times.
ECOSPAS was actively developed from 2006 to 2013, when the Department of Federal Support for Territories of the Ministry of Emergency Situations (supervised, among other things, oil spills) was headed by Khamzat Bekov. After his death in November 2019, control over compliance with the law and the quality of work was lost.
And then, according to our sources, a friendly “cut” of the funds received under the contracts began. And then the struggle for the distribution of the finances of the empire among relatives began.
As a result, Bashir Gazdiev was appointed general director (by the way, he is married to Bekov’s niece).
Some time ago, criminal cases were initiated against Bashir Gazdiev for money laundering and tax evasion in 2016-2018 in the amount of more than a billion rubles.
They say that on the account of TsASEO-ECOSPAS there are also gross violations of environmental requirements related to the removal of hazardous waste to a site in the Ivanovo region after the derailment of more than 30 wagons of a freight train near the city of Vladimir.
But, of course, that the “secret kings” of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and everyone who closely joined them will not let such a “golden calf” perish.
Tomorrow, February 16, a new head of the department may be presented at the collegium of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. If this really happens, then, among other problems, he should certainly pay close attention to the secret and strong “connection” of the former (and current employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations) with TsASEO-ECOSPAS. Still, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, first of all, should be engaged in saving people, and not making money (including through dubious schemes).