Everyone is writing now about orphanages and the initiative by United Russia (the ruling party, incidentally backed by the parliamentary “opposition” as well) to ban the adoption of children who are Russian citizens by Americans/foreigners. It’s an important and very painful debate. Of course it is terrible that our children are adopted by foreigners. What is terrible above all is that Russian citizens are reluctant to adopt orphans, especially sick ones. And there are many such children—the figure of 654,000 children left without parental care is simply horrifying. Unfortunately, the only hope for a normal life for an orphan with cerebral palsy is adoption by precisely one of those Americans. Read this: Andrei Loshak wrote well on the subject. There’s also a short film there, though you’re unlikely to be able to watch more than ten minutes of it. It is disgusting that the State Duma is banning Americans from adopting children in response to the “Magnitsky Act.” In effect, they are protecting the thieves and killers who killed Magnitsky and stole money from the state budget and, “as a retaliatory measure,” are striking at sick orphans who are Russian citizens. They’re just swine. Yet another example that United Russia is the enemy of our country and our people. So what will now happen to the children who had already gone through the initial adoption procedure, which will now be annulled? 1. Polina S. (born 2007) — cerebral palsy, uses a wheelchair, court date set. 2. Vitaly T. (born 2008) — Down syndrome, court date set. 3. Varvara L. (born 2011) — Down syndrome. The hearing has taken place, but the ruling has not yet entered into legal force. 4. Albina D. (born 2008) — Down syndrome. 5. Dmitry M. (born 2009) — Down syndrome. Court date set. 6. Maria Sh. (born 2009) — spina bifida. The hearing has taken place, but the ruling has not yet entered into legal force. 7. Anastasia N. (born 2008) — HIV-positive; the adoptive parents have signed the documents, but no court date has yet been set. 8. Marat Z. (born 2007) — cerebral palsy; the adoptive parents have signed the documents, but no court date has yet been set. 9. Sofia M. (born 2009) — Down syndrome; the adoptive parents have signed the documents, but no court date has yet been set. You can puff out your cheeks all you like and declare, “THE CHILDREN MUST STAY IN RUSSIA.” Fine, let them stay. Great. Just find them parents. But really, I’m talking about money. As usual. About how orphanage administrations spend money. We haven’t dealt with them very often, but when we have, the impression has not been a pleasant one. Recently I wrote about the “Cadets of Baraba” orphanage, where they skim money off procurement for children’s shoes. They shave off bits even from tiny sums of 200,000–300,000 rubles (about $6,500–$9,800 at the time), awarding the contract to a single supplier and shutting out others by using Latin letters in the tender text (which makes it impossible to find):
I asked RosPil lawyer Andrei Mishchenkov to dig through the rest of the shoe supply contracts for the year and run a kind of experiment: could RosPil expose the crooks in the orphanage administration without any undercover work at all—using only open-source data? Half a day later, he gave me this table: **Posting dateTender linkItem being procuredMethod of restricting competitionWinnerReduction from initial price (NMCC)****Tender result10.07.2012http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=3782916ShoesNo price justification, inflated NMCC, supplier’s representative required to have a personal medical record book, other methodsUlugbek Maripovich Akbotoev210,725-210,725=0Only one bid submitted; contract awarded to Akbotoev.11.07.2012http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=3791406ClothingSame as in the tender above.Ulugbek Maripovich Akbotoev454,711-454,711=0Only one bid submitted; contract awarded to Akbotoev.03.08.2012http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=3973623ClothingNone setSole proprietor Akbotoev Ulugbek Maripovich197,610-102,754.95= 94,855.05 (48%)2 bids submitted; auction held on 20.08.2012; contract awarded to Akbotoev13.08.2012http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=4031120ClothingNone setLimited liability company 292,160 -131,468.40= 160,691.6 (55%)2 bids; sole proprietor U.M. Akbotoev lost on price; auction held on 23.08.2012; contract awarded to LLC “SibExpert”04.10.2012http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=4443078ClothingLatin characters in the words “Clothing supply”Ulugbek Maripovich Akbotoev499,230-499,230=0Latin characters in Russian words make the tender hard to find by keyword search; contract awarded to Akbotoev; results finalized 15.10.201204.10.2012http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=4442917ClothingLatin characters in 4 words Sole proprietor Akbotoev Ulugbek Maripovich325,036- 325,036=0contract awarded to Akbotoev; results finalized 11.10.201204.10.2012http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=4443434ShoesLatin characters in the words “Clothing supply”Sole proprietor Akbotoev Ulugbek Maripovich336,150- 336,150=0contract awarded to Akbotoev; results finalized 15.10.201208.11.2012http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=4728102ClothingLatin characters in the word “Supply” in the tender title, bidder denied admission http://cl.ly/image/1l2V0L2t3A3ZSole proprietor Akbotoev Ulugbek Maripovich743,650 -743,650=0There were 2 participants, but the second was not admitted to the auction; contract awarded to Akbotoev; results finalized 15.11.201212.11.2012http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=4758475ClothingLatin characters in the words “Clothing supply”Sole proprietor Akbotoev Ulugbek Maripovich404,480- 404,480=0contract awarded to Akbotoev; results finalized 19.11.201212.11.2012http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=4758501ShoesLatin characters in the words “Shoe supply”Sole proprietor Akbotoev Ulugbek MaripovichNMCC 233,500; no information on contract conclusionTender appealed; no information on its conduct publishedNMCC = initial (maximum) contract price. What this table shows is the following. The “Cadets of Baraba” orphanage bought clothes and shoes through Ulugbek Maripovich Akbotoev. They squeezed out other suppliers with all sorts of inflated requirements (rows 1 and 2). But making such obviously illegal demands—like requiring a medical record book—was too blatant, so they dropped them (rows 3 and 4). Competition immediately appeared in the bidding. In one tender Akbotoev won (row 3), but to do so he had to cut the price by 48%. In the second, he lost, and the price reduction was 55%. In other words, for the same money the orphanage could have bought twice as much. A 50% price cut suited neither the orphanage management nor businessman Akbotoev. So no one saw the next clothing and shoe procurements for the “Cadets of Baraba” orphanage. They inserted Latin characters everywhere, making the tenders impossible to find on the state procurement website. When someone did manage to find one, they were simply barred from bidding (row 8). As you can see, there were no more price reductions after that. Ulugbek Akbotoev got contracts at the maximum price. How much of that price he kicked back to the orphanage management is something the Investigative Committee should be looking into. But it isn’t. Nobody gives a damn. Not the police, not the Investigative Committee, not the governor of Novosibirsk Region. There were mass runaways from the “Cadets of Baraba” orphanage, the children were robbed (and still are), but no one cares. Only RosPil digs through the contracts. If our lawyer (whose salary is paid from your donations) was able to piece together the procurement scheme, could the “relevant authorities” have done the same? They have operatives, warrants, wiretaps, cars with flashing lights, and all sorts of public oversight councils. NOBODY CARES. In our state, orphanages exist so that budget money can be allocated to them. So there can be procurement contracts and capital repairs. Those “Cadets of Baraba” kids running away from their orphanage would run all the way to America too, if they could. Because there is no United Russia there, and nobody steals money on the procurement of children’s rubber boots. It’s just far away, and they’d be caught on the way. Then they’d be patriotically returned to the orphanage, so it could receive funding according to the number of beds. That funding would then be used for procurement. Ulugbek Maripovich would walk into the director’s office and wink at him.