I already wrote about this Ministry of Regional Development contract. Briefly, once again: Russia’s Ministry of Regional Development is procuring the “implementation of measures aimed at creating the first phase of the federal state information system for territorial planning. Starting contract price: 140 million rubles (about 140 million RUB). Deadline: 109 days. Here
The experts we managed to find all said the same thing: of those 140 million budget rubles, at least 100 million would immediately be shipped off to some enterprising guys at the Ministry of Regional Development. Backed by expert opinion, we filed a complaint, because the tender documentation does not make it possible to determine whether the results of the work would meet the Customer’s needs. On April 1, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) reviewed the case. The complaint was found justified. The Customer was ordered to amend the documentation:
What happened next:
we were unable to obtain the FAS decision for a long time. They did not post it on their website either.
Meanwhile, the Customer made no changes to the documentation.
And, bluntly ignoring the FAS decision and the law in force, the Ministry of Regional Development went ahead and held the tender.
Just as we predicted, the winner was OJSC “Research Center for Construction.” Its founder is Rosimushchestvo (the Federal Agency for State Property Management), which is under the authority of the Ministry of Economic Development (hellooo, Elvira Sakhipzadovna).
Thanks to the inquisitive activists at “RosPil,” we learned that members of the Board of Directors of the Research Center for Construction include suspects citizens V.I. Kogan and I.V. Ponomarev.
( http://www.cstroy.ru/files/oaoinfo/saf310311.pdf) who, at the same time, are part of the Ministry of Regional Development’s leadership (ah, what a terrible coincidence):
(http://www.minregion.ru/ministerstvo/governance/kogan/)
(http://www.minregion.ru/ministerstvo/governance/ponomarev/) Kogan is, generally speaking, an interesting character. It should be noted that the tender was won because every single member of the commission gave the Research Center for Construction the maximum score on the “quality” criterion. Given what was happening, we had to file a second complaint about the Customer’s actions, because we could not obtain the official FAS decision on the first one and feared we would miss the deadline, which the crooks would then exploit by signing the state contract (we ultimately received the decision on the first complaint only after filing the second one). In short, our second complaint was reviewed a few days ago (it is worth noting that this time several other bidders also filed complaints against the Ministry of Regional Development over this contract). It too was found justified. Naturally, we still do not have the decision in hand. But this time they promised to meet the deadline. So, in the end: we have two justified complaints regarding one tender. What is happening now is not entirely clear, because of the chaos, frenzy, and murky dealings going on inside Russia’s executive authorities. According to one version, the crooks at the Ministry of Regional Development did in fact sign the state contract unlawfully and have already transferred the money. According to another, the FAS did manage to stop the signing. We are looking into it. In any case, the Ministry of Regional Development is once again demonstrating an utterly undisguised desire to siphon off public money, with little concern for public scrutiny and even while ignoring direct orders from the law and regulatory authorities. Let me remind you that these crooks have already surfaced in the so-called “Hungarian case,” which we are quietly investigating. We have already managed to find some rather curious things — we will present the first results soon. Once again, we are adding the Ministry of Regional Development to the black notebook. Someday, guys, you will have to answer for this.