RosPil uncovers, challenges, and from time to time gets a huge number of corrupt government contracts worth many millions and billions of rubles canceled, but there are some procurements—tiny and insignificant in the overall volume of the five-trillion-ruble state order system—that are more infuriating than a stolen bridge. For example. A contract to supply shoes for orphaned children, for the laughable sum of 223,500 rubles.
http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=4758501 The children who ended up in this orphanage in Novosibirsk Region clearly did not draw a lucky lot, right? Most likely, it is even worse than one can imagine. If you google “Kadety Baraby” (the full name of the contracting authority is "Municipal State Educational Boarding School for Orphaned Children and Children Left Without Parental Care, 'Kadety Baraby,' Barabinsky District, Novosibirsk Region"), the first result is this: Kadety Baraby children are running away from the boarding school! TROUBLED ORPHANAGE CHANGES OWNERSHIP AFTER MASS ESCAPES The Kadety Baraby orphanage in Barabinsky District is being transferred from municipal ownership to regional ownership and will become the second state-run orphanage in Novosibirsk Region. As Novosibirsk Region Social Development Minister Sergei Pykhtin said today, the region currently has 27 orphanages, 26 of them under municipal control. The Novosibirsk Region government was prompted to change the institution’s ownership after inspections carried out following the mass escapes of children from Kadety Baraby. As the newspaper Sovetskaya Sibir reported in August, citing Sergei Pykhtin, 44 escapes had taken place from this institution in the current year alone. In spring 2012, an inspection of the institution was launched and uncovered serious violations. “The staff, led by management, did not particularly trouble themselves with the educational process, and the institution’s material and technical resources existed only on paper,” Sergei Pykhtin summed up. According to him, the situation at Kadety Baraby has improved somewhat. “There are currently 88 children at Kadety Baraby. Although there are still runaways, unfortunately,” Sergei Pykhtin lamented. http://pro-sibir.ru/node/2729 44 escapes a year from a single orphanage. Something is probably very wrong at that orphanage. I’m not going to interfere in the educational process, but I will say this: the orphaned children at Kadety Baraby are, at the very least, being robbed. Go to the procurement page and search it (Ctrl+F) for the letter “o” written in the Latin alphabet. Here’s what you get:
What does that mean? It means the crooks who posted the contract deliberately inserted Latin letters so the listing could not be found on the government procurement website. Shoe suppliers will not see it, there will be no competition for the contract, and that means the guaranteed winner will be the one you arranged with in advance to kick back 45,000 rubles out of the 233,500-ruble contract. It’s not exactly earth-shattering money, but every little bit adds up. Today shoes, tomorrow potatoes, the day after that fuel oil for the boiler house, and a year later a major capital renovation. A classic. How can this even be allowed? Because this is not just about someone pocketing 45,000 rubles—the other side of that is someone else’s bare feet. Or maybe not bare feet, but simply worse shoes for orphans. This is a genuine corruption offense. You cannot accidentally insert a Latin letter into a procurement listing, especially specifically an “o.” They did not confuse some obviously similar pair like a Cyrillic and Latin lookalike by chance—they chose exactly the kind of letter that would hide the contract without attracting attention. And in the cultural capital (St. Petersburg), they are stealing from children with intellectual disabilities: General Education Special (Correctional) School No. 18 (Type VIII) of St. Petersburg’s Central District. The school teaches children in grades 1 through 11 with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities, as well as children with accompanying psychophysical and somatic illnesses (complex disabilities).
http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=4854021 The same simple search for Latin letters shows us this: “Execution of works to replace the metal fence around the territory of State Special Correctional Educational Institution No. 18 of the Central District at the address: 9-11-13 Kavalergardskaya St., for state needs of St. Petersburg in 2012” The contract is hidden, and the job of replacing the metal fence (which is very obviously a competitive market) will be carried out by a specific contractor who will bring the crooks in the school administration 200,000 to 400,000 rubles. Dairy products for a kindergarten in Voronezh:
http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=4878308 Supply of dairy products Two Latin letters will enrich those fine children’s educators—or, more likely, their bosses—by 100,000 to 150,000 rubles. Let me answer the obvious question right away: no, RosPil does not have the power to line up and shoot the bastards who do this kind of thing. We are just a civic organization that exists on your donations. The Interior Ministry and the Investigative Committee should be the ones investigating and bringing people to justice. Though right now they are busy—covering for murderers and the officials protecting them in the Tsapok gang case. But in any case, we filed all the complaints. In addition, letters were sent to the governors of St. Petersburg, Voronezh Region, and Novosibirsk Region. We’ll see whether any administrative consequences follow. On television, they keep saying the fight against corruption is in full swing. An update on Kadety Baraby. We quickly looked through the procurement history for shoes and clothing for this orphanage. Exactly as expected: http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=4443078 http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=4442917 http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=4443434 http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=4758475 Everywhere, Latin letters; everywhere, only one bid; everywhere, the same winner: Individual entrepreneur Akbotoev Ulugbek Maripovich