Treat the whole system
The protégé of Rostov ex-governor and current senator Vladimir Chub, ex-Minister of Healthcare Tatyana Bykovskaya held on to her seat for over 15 years, allowing dubious firms to win tenders. Her defenders include the current head of the region Vasily Golubev, State Duma deputies, and the head of Pharmstandard Viktor Kharitonin. The system is so overgrown with connections that the trial had to be held in another region.
Lawyers of the former Minister of Health of the Rostov Region Tatyana Bykovskaya
filed a cassation appeal against her sentence to the Supreme Court of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). In June, it was abandoned in force by the appellate instance of the Krasnodar Regional Court.
In March, the Kushchevsky District Court found Bykovskaya guilty of abuse of power (Article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country)) in a case concerning the disposal of medical waste and sentenced her to 4.5 years in prison.
Tender after tender
Tatyana Bykovskaya was detained back in 2019 and placed under house arrest. According to the investigation, a year earlier she created conditions under which the company “Center 100 Rostov-on-Don” was able to win several electronic auctions related to the processing and disposal of class B medical waste (epidemiologically hazardous) in 2017-18. Their actions significantly violated the rights of other bidders, as well as the state.
The Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) was the first to draw attention to this violation. It opened a case, where in addition to the ministry and the specified legal entity, the following were also involved: State Budgetary Institution of the Rostov Region “OKB No. 2”, Municipal Budgetary Healthcare Institution “City Hospital No. 20 of Rostov-on-Don”, State Budgetary Healthcare Institution of the Rostov Region “DRS No. 4” of Rostov-on-Don, Municipal Budgetary Healthcare Institution City Emergency Medical Care Center (Novocherkassk). The FAS then found signs of an anticompetitive agreement between the participants and during the procurement procedures.
We were talking about quite serious money. For example, the company won a tender for the provision of such services to City Polyclinic No. 16 for 71.6 million rubles, despite the fact that the only competitor offered the same amount. The company won the tender of Regional Clinical Hospital No. 2 as the only participant, and the City Emergency Hospital for 32.1 million.
According to Seldon Bas, OOO Center 100 Rostov-on-Don was created shortly before the events described – at the end of 2016. In 2018, the company participated in purchases worth 81 million rubles, in 2019 – 208 million. The company still exists today, and continues to win tenders, but after Bykovskaya's arrest – in significantly more modest amounts – the amount of all contracts for 2020-2023 is less than for 2018 alone. Financial affairs here also went downhill – the net loss for 2023 amounted to 45 million rubles.
Owner of company Alexander Dantsenko In 2017, he founded a company with a similar name, Center 100 Active, registered in Kazan, which also specialized in waste collection, but it ceased to exist last year. By a strange coincidence, the scandal in the Tatarstan Ministry of Health coincided with the period of this company’s activity – the head of the department Adel Vafin was forced to leave his post after a criminal case was opened against his subordinates.
Amazing resilience
Tatyana Bykovskaya comes from Kaliningrad, from a family of doctors. At school she was an activist – an activist – she served as the chairman of the squad council and the October star, worked as a secretary in the school Komsomol committee. For four years she worked as a hygienist at the Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology of the Bagaevsky District of the Rostov Region, where she ended up by assignment. Later, she worked for 9 years as deputy head of the administration of the same district. Since 2001, she became the first deputy executive director of the Rostov Territorial Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund.
She took up the post of minister in 2004, when the governor was Vladimir Chubnow a member of the Federation Council. Chub was a real political long-liver, but Bykovskaya managed to outlast him, maintaining her position when Vasily Golubev became the head of the region. Scandals did not shake the minister's position. Back in the early 2010s, Bykovskaya turned out to be a witness in a case of fraud in the purchase of tomographs, and in 2018, a doctor spoke unflatteringly about her Irina Bushtyrevawho accused the official of falsifying infant mortality figures.
Moreover, she remained in office in 2019, after which she was placed under house arrest. At the same time, in defense of the minister, State Duma deputies from the Rostov Region sent appeals to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country) Yuri Chaika and the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) Alexandra Bastrykina.
When the latter's term expired, Bykovskaya returned to work as if nothing had happened. She resigned only at the end of 2020 after the high-profile “oxygen scandal” at Rostov Hospital No. 20 – then several patients of the COVID hospital suffocated during a long pause in the supply of medical oxygen. At the same time, the official reason for her resignation was retirement.
But even after this, Bykovskaya's career developed – in 2021, she got a job as director of the Southern Federal District division of the MedInvestGroup Group of Companies – a company Victor Kharitoninwho is also the owner of the drug manufacturer Pharmstandard.
It is not surprising that, given such political vitality and serious connections of the former minister, the prosecution insisted on changing the jurisdiction of her case – and the trial took place not in the Rostov region, but in the Krasnodar region.
How far will it go?
After Bykovskaya left the post of minister, her deputy performed her duties for some time. Alexander Krat. However, he was then appointed to the position. Yuri Kobzevwho at that time had already been a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country) for four years, where he worked as part of the Health Protection Committee. From his direct medical experience, he had the positions of chief physician of the Taganrog City Emergency Hospital and the consultative and diagnostic center in the same city. He retains this post to this day. Over the past years, the new composition of the ministry has not been involved in any high-profile scandals, but it is known from the Seldon Bas database that the ill-fated LLC Center 100 Rostov-on-Don continues to operate in the region and win tenders.
All this makes us expect that the recent high-profile cases in the medicine of the Rostov region are not the last. The connections that Bykovskaya managed to acquire, and the multi-million tenders that were won with her participation, cannot but raise questions for Governor Vasily Golubev, and possibly his predecessor Vladimir Chub.