Officials of Ministry of Defense, Ukroboronprom and domestic specialized exporters impede activities of Defense Forces - media
Abuses within the Ministry of Defense and at the level of exporters in the organization and implementation of arms procurement for the Armed Forces have become systemic and impede the activities of the Defense Forces.
According to Censor.NET, this was reported by Nashi Hroshi.
The journalists, with reference to the court ruling, noted that officials of the Ministry of Defense, Ukroboronprom and other domestic special export companies "are taking actions to obstruct the legitimate activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations during a special period."
On March 11, 2022, the Ministry of Defense and Spetstechnoexport signed a contract under which, along with other weapons and military equipment, it was supposed to supply DShK 12.7*108 mm machine guns (400 pcs.) and KPV heavy machine gun 14.5 (26 pcs.) to Ukraine within a month. The total value of the contract is UAH 209,051,464, of which UAH 199,869,000 is an advance payment.
As of 1 August 2022, the contract had not been fully executed. The reason for the failure to deliver approximately UAH 96 million worth of products was that "part of the funds advanced by the Ministry of Defence, the management of Spetstechnoexport transferred to the accounts of foreign intermediary companies affiliated with it, refusing to comply with the agreements previously reached with foreign supplier companies".
"The above was done despite the absence of the required list of documents for export-import operations, licenses of origin, results of technical inspection, etc. submitted by the specialized exporter in accordance with the established procedure. In order to conceal the fact of the failure to fulfill the contract, as well as the supply of goods at inflated prices and of inadequate quality, the persons involved suspend the imposition of penalties on the SE Spetstechnoexport to compensate for the losses of the Ministry of Defense, block the signing and advance payment of a direct contract between the defense ministry and the Slovak supplier company Radington Industrial Consulting s. r.o., for a similar range of goods, but at lower prices (by 15-20%)," the materials say.
Thus, the supplies under the contract of 11.03.2022 were to be delivered by Spetstechnoexport under the contract of 05.03.2022 concluded with XXeurope, s.r.o. (Slovakia).
However, the director of XXeurope, s.r.o. reported that the Contract of 05.03.2022 was not fully executed "due to the lack of full payment, and that the latter refused to participate in the corruption scheme that was offered to him in the 20th of March 2022 by one of the unofficial representatives of the SE Spetstechnoexport.
It was also found that a similar situation was occurring with a number of other contracts.
One witness reported that contracts concluded by Ukraine and representatives of the country of Sudan for the procurement of 120 mm mines were initially unable to be fulfilled by contractors or delivered defective goods as new with forged documents.
"At the same time, the witness said that the persons who sent the 120 mm mines have close ties with representatives of the Wagner PMC and representatives of the Russian Federal Security Service. The witness knows these data due to family ties with officials in the law enforcement agencies of the country of Sudan", - it is noted in the materials.
Therefore, the journalists quote the available data as saying that the abuses in the MoD system and at the level of exporters in the organisation and implementation of procurement of weapons, military and special equipment for the needs of the Armed Forces have become systemic since 24.02.2022, and in the context of martial law, these are direct actions to obstruct the legitimate activities of the Armed Forces during a special period.
Earlier in his investigation, journalist Mykhailo Tkach reported that businessman Oleksii Vladimirov was involved in the purchase of weapons and ammunition. The media obtained a recording of Vladimirov's conversation, in which he mentioned Alexei Petrov.
"Oleksiy Petrov is the head of the state-owned company Spetstechnoexport. Petrov is the former head of the Zakarpattia Regional State Administration and, before that, the head of the SBU's counterintelligence department. Spetstechnoexport is a subsidiary of the state-owned company Ukrspetsexport, which has the right to purchase arms and ammunition abroad. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the government, at the request of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, transferred Spetstechnoexport to the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine. Petrov was then appointed to run the company," Tkach said.
Petrov admitted to communicating with Vladimirov, saying that he was not a player in the defence market. He admitted that he had instructed Dmytro Yehupov, an employee of the company who visited Vladimirov, to hold meetings. But according to Petrov, the company he runs has no contracts with Vladimirov.
In 2022, the Ministry of Defence's contracts were overseen by the head of the Department of Military and Technical Policy, Volodymyr Pikuzo, who became the head of the Defence Procurement Agency at the end of 2022. Pikuzo is currently working for Spetstechnoexport.
