Today everyone is asking me: so, are you happy about the arrests of the Far Eastern Federal University leadership? They were indeed arrested over what was one of RosPil’s first cases (an anti-corruption project focused on exposing fraud in public procurement). Back in 2011, we were already proving that the government procurement of the “electronic university” system, in the form it was implemented, was simply the theft of 1 billion rubles.
In March 2012, we even won the review at the Federal Antimonopoly Service. After that, the tender should have been canceled, but it wasn’t:
We spent weeks and months on correspondence and complaints. We flooded Minister Nikiforov with appeals, newly appointed at the time and supposedly progressive. Read for yourself what we were demanding:
Back then, officials at every level told us: you don’t understand anything, there’s no need to cancel anything, everything is already under control, everything is fine, we know what we’re doing.
Five years later, the rector of Far Eastern Federal University, Sergei Ivanets, is arrested, and two FEFU vice-rectors are placed under house arrest. All of them are defendants in a criminal case involving major fraud with university funds during the creation of the “Electronic University” system.
They are accused of stealing not the full amount, but 23 million rubles. But of course there is no “electronic university” to speak of—just a lot of different people who profited from this kickback scheme.
So the answer to the question “am I satisfied?” is no, I’m not. We already knew we were completely right, and now that has been confirmed beyond doubt. But only the rector will be jailed over 23 million, even though there were several procurements totaling more than 1 billion rubles. Governor Miklushevsky was involved too, along with a whole lot of other people. All of them escaped responsibility. Minister Nikolai Nikiforov faced no political consequences. That 1 billion in budget money was sent off to offshore accounts and will never come back. Just as we wrote in the letter to Nikiforov, the entire system of government IT procurement has turned into hell and trash.
So this is the kind of victory we have: satisfied that we were proven right, disappointed that no one listened to us.
So, donate to the Anti-Corruption Foundation. ACF: right about everything since 2011.