Many of you have probably read Varlamov’s rather intriguing post, "Crush at the Country’s Main Ice Rink."
I read it too, and my usual thought came to mind (probably an occupational hazard): How much did it cost?
If things are really that bad, maybe they just cut costs too aggressively? Maybe they pinched public funds that are supposedly in short supply for the most important things (healthcare, for example), and that’s why the result turned out so poorly.
So I asked the ACF (Anti-Corruption Foundation) to find the figures on how much this thing cost, and I want to share those numbers now in case you’re interested too.
Let’s do the math:
Construction of the rink and its infrastructure. 660 million rubles were paid to the company "Russky Lyod Development".
Technical operation and maintenance for the season. 50,500,000 rubles were paid to the company "Russky Lyod Technology".
Organization of rental points and safety briefings. 52,149,560 rubles were paid to the company "Ayskom"
So, it turns out that you and I paid 762,649,560 rubles for the largest ice rink in the world. At a minimum.
I suspect that the companies "Russky Lyod Technology" and "Russky Lyod Development" (items 1 and 2) have the same ultimate owner, and what we’re seeing here is a classic scheme: the procurement was split into two parts so it could be “won” with a low bid. You appear to offer the lowest price—660 million—and then right afterward you’re handed an additional tender worth 50 million (despite the fact that a competitor offered 43 million). So in the end you get a contract worth 710 million, which is no longer anywhere near the lowest price.
But that’s not even the main point. What’s really frustrating is to have an ice rink costing close to a billion rubles where the kinds of things described in Varlamov’s post are happening.
I’m no expert on ice rinks and won’t claim to know whether 762 million is a lot or a little, but given the situation with the largest skate park in Europe, apparently fit only for breaking arms and stealing money, I’d like to ask Moscow City Hall: let’s stop building things just because they’re the biggest in the world, and start building things properly.
If you have information about how much money Sobyanin’s people stole on the rink—and how—they can report it to us anonymously through Black Box.
If you want us, sooner or later, to put behind bars the person who SUDDENLY turns out to have a couple of extra million dollars received for handing the rink contract to the right people, then go right now and vote for our bill. Your vote is very important.