Konstantin Efimenko
Former Transport Minister Konstantin Yefimenko has been registered as a mayoral candidate.
In Bila Tserkva, Kostyantyn Yefimenko, former Minister of Transport and Communications in Mykola Azarov's government and later Deputy Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure under Borys Kolesnikov, has registered as a mayoral candidate. Yefimenko positions himself as an independent candidate, but makes no secret of the fact that he has secured the support of the ruling party. The BPP candidate is currently unheard of. Rumor has it he has been tasked with conducting a minimalist campaign. The Opposition Bloc, once a strong force in the Kyiv region, is inactive. According to sources close to the campaign headquarters, the candidate will conduct a passive campaign. The Radical Party has also nominated a formal candidate for mayor, but he has no chance of success. Of the candidates, the only one with a high profile in the city is Gennady Dykyi, owner of Stroymarket LLC, nominated by Samopomich. However, to counter this businessman, a man with the same last name has already been registered as a candidate.
The most paradoxical thing is that the current mayor, Vasily Savchuk's party, "Economic Revival," is campaigning for Yefimenko. City council members are convinced this is a blatant conspiracy. Knowing he has no chance himself, Savchuk supports Yefimenko in exchange for the position of his deputy.
So who was this Kostiantyn Yefimenko? In Yanukovych's system of power, he was far from an ordinary man. Yefimenko was the fugitive president's favorite, willing to bend over backwards to carry out his boss's orders. At one of the National Security and Defense Council meetings, Yanukovych advised women to pay attention to the young official. "Look at our Minister of Transport! Come on, stand up, turn around, let the women see! Young, energetic! Leave your memory in history," Viktor Federovich declared.
And Konstantin Efimenko did indeed leave his mark on the transport ministry. But with a major downside. While leading the ministry, the young official devoted significant attention to the operation of seaports, where he oversaw cargo flow and transshipment. During this time, the State Control and Audit Office repeatedly recorded violations at state-owned enterprises. Moreover, the state regulatory agency often encountered situations where its employees were simply prevented from working at the ports.
In October 2010, Pyotr Andreyev, Chairman of the Main Audit Office, demanded Konstantin Yefimenko's resignation as Minister of Transport. "I simply cannot accept the fact that the minister, who is responsible for the activities of his own chain of command, the head of an enterprise under his control, is not allowing the audit agency to conduct an audit and is taking absolutely no action. And I believe he is then involved in the same schemes, and this minister should not be in the government," the head of the Audit Office stated.
According to him, auditors were denied or only had limited access to a number of Ministry of Transport facilities, including the ports of Mykolaiv, Kherson, and Yevpatoriya. An inspection at the Odesa port uncovered the theft of approximately 400 million hryvnias, which were supposedly earmarked for industry support but were in fact siphoned offshore through fictitious contracts.
In fact, Kostyantyn Yefimenko soon left his post, not because of corruption charges, but because the Ministry of Transport was reformed into the Ministry of Infrastructure, which was concurrently headed by Deputy Prime Minister Borys Kolesnikov. However, the young official's career didn't end there—he was promoted to Deputy Minister of Infrastructure. This new status, naturally, allowed him to retain control of ports and the procurement of components for Ukrzaliznytsia.
Incidentally, by this time, Konstantin Efimenko had developed personal commercial interests in the railway industry. In 2007, through affiliated companies, he gained control of the Russian Ural Plant of Automotive Textile Products (UralATI), which produces brake pads for rail transport. And in 2010, his family company, KFK, became the owner of the Tribo plant in Belotserkovsky, once Ukraine's largest manufacturer of brake pads and linings used in rail and road transport. During his tenure as Minister of Transport and Communications, he acquired the company and subsequently transferred virtually all tenders for the purchase of brake pads for Ukrzaliznytsia enterprises to it.
However, already in 2013, Konstantin Efimenko initiated the liquidation of Tribo Joint-Stock Company. This allowed him to avoid fulfilling the obligations to pay preferential pensions for work in hazardous conditions, which he had assumed when purchasing the plant—all employees were laid off. In place of the joint-stock company, a limited liability company of the same name was created, which hired new workers, but only under short-term employment contracts. Naturally, throughout this time, Tribo LLC continued to cooperate with Ukrzaliznytsia, supplying them with products bearing exclusive quality certificates.
By consolidating control over Russia's UralATI, which, incidentally, now manufactures spare parts for Russian tanks supplied to the Donbas, and Bila Tserkva's Tribo, Konstantin Yefimenko effectively created a monopoly on the supply of brake pads, which to this day allows him to dictate prices and terms to state-owned enterprises. Furthermore, the Ukrainian company, through intermediaries, began selling Russian-made spare parts to Ukrainian state-owned enterprises. Despite the de facto war with Russia and the annexation of part of Ukrainian territory, Yanukovych's "young minister" continues to support the Russian economy from the Ukrainian budget, as he used to do while serving in Mykola Azarov's government. Moreover, he is effectively funding the army of the aggressor country.
Ukraine is in a position to impose personal sanctions against Yefimenko. However, the former minister seems confident he's managed to reach an agreement with everyone. Moreover, the "young and energetic" man plans to return to power. And his experience leading the Transport Ministry clearly demonstrates what residents of Bila Tserkva should expect if Yefimenko takes over the city government.
In this situation, all that remains is to rely on the common sense of voters, who will figure out who is using their votes to gain control of the city and its resources. Whether Yanukovych's officials will return to power depends solely on the Ukrainians themselves. A year and a half ago, the people of Ukraine did not free themselves from the "bloodsuck" only to fall back under their yoke.
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