Tens of millions were given to Mariupol company that invented employees and forged documents for reconstruction, - mass media. VIDEO
The firm has received millions of dollars in contracts to rebuild buildings destroyed by Ruscists in the Kyiv region, as well as to reconstruct a dormitory for families from Mariupol in Dnipro.
According to Censor.NET, this is stated in the Bihus.Info investigation.
For example, Archstroitehnadzor was established in Mariupol and was engaged in quite expensive but local contracts, mainly the arrangement of bus stop pavilions. The company received its last order in the now-occupied city in December 2021. On February 22, Bohdan Kovpak from Mariupol became the director of Archstroytekhnadzor.
Previously, Kovpak worked as an engineer at Azovstal and posted a photo on social media with Rostyslav Shurma, who was then the head of Zaporizhstal (both companies are part of Rinat Akhmetov's Metinvest).
In the summer of 2022, the Mariupol company began receiving large contracts from the Kyiv Military District Administration to repair and restore buildings and educational institutions damaged by the Russians - without tenders, directly, the authors note.
In July and August, Archstroytekhnadzor received orders worth more than UAH 15 million, including more than UAH 13 million on the same day, 2 August. The company took on the restoration of houses and educational institutions not in one particular place, but in Vyshgorod, Fastiv, Bucha, and Brovary districts at once.
According to the publication, by the end of 2022, the number of orders for reconstruction work from the Kyiv Regional Military District Administration reached more than 30 million, and the geography expanded to Irpin, which was heavily affected by the occupation. Prozorro, which is supposed to publish all documents related to each contract, does not even publish contracts for all Archstroyitehnadzor contracts. The published files are corrupted by the scanner and contain only general estimates, which makes it difficult to understand what work the company was supposed to perform and what exactly it was supposed to buy to perform this work.
The company also received a larger contract for the reconstruction of a dormitory for families from Mariupol in Dnipro, worth about UAH 35 million. The tender was conducted formally, as Archstroyitehnadzor was allegedly the only participant, and therefore it was the company that received the order from Mariupol Utilities, the authors write.
"The company attached to the general list of tender documents a file with a list of its employees and a confirmation that they have all undergone special training, are qualified, and can perform this type of work. The lion's share of people on this list are fictional characters. Some people have had an extra digit added to their TIN, some people with the names listed have never existed at all, and some have TINs that correspond to people as old as 95. Nevertheless, these people allegedly received their certificates after undergoing special training, and the company received its order," the investigation says.
Also, according to journalists, in November 2022, during a major contracting process, Archstroyitehnadzor changed ownership. It was a man whose last known address of registration was the Bucha penal colony. The authors write that he had previously had numerous problems with the law and drugs, and now lives in an ordinary panel in Kyiv.
At the same time, Bohdan Kovpak continued to be the director. At the end of 2022, Arkhstroitekhnadzor unexpectedly allocated more than 20 million for the alleged purchase of 35 kilometers of waterproofing fabric. The fabric was purchased from a company that sews blankets and has previously been involved in criminal proceedings related to tax evasion, the authors write.
The investigation states that in the spring of 2023, Kovpak left the company, it stopped receiving orders, and the right to complete the work on the dormitory for Mariupol residents was transferred to the company Stroitelni Tradytsii. The company, according to journalists, had never done anything before, and shortly before receiving the contract, Bohdan Kovpak's mother became director.
In addition to the UAH 9 million for the dormitory work, the firm also received several large contracts in Kyiv. The investigation notes that Stroitelni Tradytsii also "invented" some of its employees, most likely forged certificates of previous work experience, and sold several goods for the dormitory at very inflated prices, which were allegedly purchased by Archstroitehnadzor.
"One of the real employees of Stroitelnye Tradytsii is a person with the same name as a former employee of the same Mariupol utility company that awarded these contracts to Archstroitehnadzor and Stroitelnye Tradytsii.
It is also ironic that the dormitory for Mariupol residents in Dnipro was reconstructed as a pilot and very significant project supported by several major international organizations. Their representatives were also present at the opening ceremony and later promised to help the Mariupol authorities scale the project to several more dormitories. How international partners will work in the same coordinate system with fake documents and fictitious employees is not yet clear," the article says.
The Mariupol City Hall admitted that they knew Archstroytekhnadzor and had been cooperating with it for a long time. At the same time, they denied that they had any influence on the firm's contracting, allegedly not knowing that the two companies were related. The Mariupol City Council also noted that they were not supposed to check the authenticity of the certificates and the list of qualified workers.
Deputy Head of the OP Shurma stated that he had not influenced and was not going to influence any companies to receive any contracts.
In a conversation with journalists, Bohdan Kovpak said that he was not involved in construction and repairs at all, advised to write written requests to companies, and threatened law enforcement agencies.
