The chief power engineer of the Alabuga Development construction company, Rustem Gumerov, was arrested in a bribery case. The construction company is part of the Alabuga structure, owned by the Tatarstan Ministry of Property. The story is classic: Gumerov promised to facilitate the conclusion of contracts with a certain structure from Alabuga Development.
As the correspondent of The Moscow Post in Tatarstan managed to find out, the criminal case against the power engineer could turn into trouble for a number of high-ranking local officials.
An investment to nowhere
Alabuga Development is located on the territory of the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, established in 2006. About 25 billion rubles were “swelled” there. By 2021, Tatarstan’s investments in it have not paid off, and the annual net loss is in the range from 550 million to 1 billion rubles.
There are other problems, mostly of an environmental nature: people complained about the stench, the discharge of sewage in the wrong place. And in July 2018, SEZ workers massively complained about “harassment and possible dismissal”, some tried to get their return to the enterprises through the courts. This was reported by Kazanfirst.
And with the Alabuga Polytech college opened a couple of years ago, whose students, by the way, are assigned to work for SEZ enterprises for a very modest scholarship, in general, the situation has gone beyond the normal – since the opening, two college students committed suicide, and the media also write about almost non-slavish methods of working with children.
Specifically, Alabuga Development was accused of non-payment of 35 million rubles to contractors. All these are indicators of the not very rich position of the SEZ and its constituent companies.
What do the top managers of Alabuga spend the billions allocated by the state on?
Not everything is radiant in the kingdom
Sergei Bochikhin has been the General Director of Alabuga Development for seven years now. And, I think, it is he who should be addressed with questions about why bribery and the accompanying corruption flourish at the enterprise he leads, and suppliers complain about non-payment for services.
Despite such a long career, there is not much information about Bochikhin on the Web – it is known that before joining the organization he owned a stake in the Element-1 company, which was engaged in trade. In 2012, it was liquidated. How he ended up as head of the “daughter” of a state-owned company is a mystery shrouded in darkness.
As for his work at Alabuga Development, on the Internet, by his last name, there are mainly press releases about the participation of a manager in the opening of a project in the Alabuga special economic zone, where the construction company is located.
However, not everything is as radiant in the “kingdom” as they want to present it: as some media write, citing sources, contractors allegedly complain that the company under the leadership of Bochikhin receives contracts from the parent Alabuga without any competition. At the same time, they allegedly do not even have the resources to carry them out. All this is reminiscent of the desire of all participants in the manipulation to cash in on state construction projects without giving money to the side.
According to Kazanfirst’s sources, allegedly if “in some incredible way you were declared the winner, you are told behind the scenes that 21% for general contracting services will be added to your price. It’s great, isn’t it? And I have to pay taxes on them. And “They have a profit – mere pennies. Where is the money, Zin? 21% of three billion is an excellent help in a crisis.”
And these are questions for the head of the parent company. But about Mr. Shagivaleev – later.
There are some oddities with contracts at Alabuga Development. Among its customers, only three were named – the Directorate of the Municipal Order of Yoshkar-Ola, Glavinveststroy of the Republic of Tatarstan and Yelabuga Polytechnic College. In total, the company received a miserable 4 contracts from these institutions. But the customer does not act on more than two thousand agreements. And, what is most interesting, in the public domain for many of them there is no information with which firms it concludes contracts.
Such things are not disclosed, usually to protect the interests of the country when it comes to contracts, for example, military departments or the FSB. But what does Abaluga Development have to do with this and whether such secrecy is generally a violation of the law are questions that only the investigating authorities can answer. Apparently, the contract on which Gumerov wanted to “get rich” is from a series of “shadow” ones – the company’s suppliers have not been seen since 2018.
But, as we have the opportunity to observe, disclose the contractor or not, and if he gave a bribe for concluding a contract with him, you have to answer for this. It just seems that in the case of Rustem Gumerov, they could make a “scapegoat” out of him. After all, “schematoses” at the enterprise are unlikely to be organized without the sanction of its head.
As for the resource base of the enterprise, at least its financial stability can be called low. According to Rusprofile, the firm has more debt than revenue for 2022, and insufficient equity to support current operations. Moreover, the situation has become so “dreadful” only in recent years – apparently, the domestic “innovation” was heavily tied to foreign components?
A person with connections
Now about the head of the parent JSC “SEZ IPT “Alabuga” Timur Shagivaleev, who, apparently, appointed the former trader to the post of head of “Alabuga development”. politics.
There is nothing outstanding in his past either. But there is a high-profile scandal associated with the construction of a cottage village on the territory of Zeleniy Bor. According to MK, the investigators suspect that the forest plot with cadastral number 16:24:000000:687 on the banks of the Volga was leased to the Polyanka DPK for 49 years on the basis of falsified documents. In “Polyanka” Shagivaleev, together with relatives of local officials, was the founder. Apparently, despite the reaction of social activists and their appeals to the supervisory authorities, “Polyanka” remained in place.
Apparently, Shagivaleev, despite all the failures of the SEZ and the scandal with the land, is in good standing in the Tatarstan government, if Mukhametshin Farid Khairullovich, the head of the State Council of the Republic, did not hesitate to take him “under the wing”. Rustam Minnikhanov doesn’t mind either?
What’s next?
Gumerov’s lawyer has already stated that his client is not guilty. We believe that now they will try with all their might to get him out of criminal prosecution. Otherwise, the top management of “Alabuga”, as well as the “megaproject” itself, runs the risk of crumbling like a house of cards. Among other things, this will be a blow to the reputation of Minnikhanov, who already has enough garbage and business scandals in his patrimony.
