The "overseer" of Yanukovych's former administrator, appointed to look after his interests in Kyiv, managed to preserve this long-running trough for his master.
On the evening of September 4, Kyiv City Council deputies adopted one of the most controversial decisions in recent memory: they simplified the process for participating in small architectural forms (SAFs). Now, any kiosk owner (as long as their stall isn't located near a metro exit or in another prohibited location) can pay taxes to the city budget and be assured that their business won't be demolished in the coming years.
"The Kyiv City Council's decision to amend the share participation rate for small architectural forms will, firstly, allow for a detailed inventory of all small architectural forms and, secondly, will contribute between 40 and 100 million hryvnias to the capital's budget," the Kyiv City State Administration press service reported, citing Kyiv Mayoral Advisor Dmytro Belotserkovets.
"The mafia has won. 79 votes in favor of the draft resolution granting the kiosk business monopolists the right to continue filling Kyiv with tents and drinking establishments. The draft resolution does not limit the number of temporary structures. Hello, Shanghai!" commented MP Oleksandr Pabat on this momentous occasion on his Facebook page.
Meanwhile, Vitali Klitschko, who until recently was determined to fight against "tents and drinking establishments," is now happily counting the future profits from their legalization.
As a reminder, three months ago he stated: "According to some experts, around 20 small architectural forms (SAFs) are currently trading illegally in Kyiv. They block traffic. They illegally connect to the power grid. They're even set up near schools. This chaotic trading not only undermines safety but also distorts the city's appearance. We need to systematize the operation of SAFs, and we must remove all illegal kiosks that violate regulations."
Now, the mayor is no longer concerned about the proximity of the "gendelyki" to educational institutions and their questionable aesthetics. "Let's do the math: on average, a small architectural form (SAF) brings its owner 10-15 UAH in income. Moreover, no one can say for sure how many illegally installed SAFs are in Kyiv; only an approximate figure of up to 20 is available. We can calculate: the income is at least 200 million UAH. This is a lot of money, and the taxes from this income should finally be channeled into the budget, because we need to take care of Kyiv's infrastructure and development," the mayor stated on the Kyiv TV channel.
Some attributed the double discrepancy between the 100 million projected by Kyiv City State Administration experts and the 200 million Klitschko is counting on to the mayor-cum-boxer's wild imagination. Those close to sports medicine, however, are certain that Vitaliy, due to his mental retardation and the injuries he's suffered, simply can't retain confidential information. Therefore, with childish innocence, he blurted out the real figures, which the main sponsors of the small architectural forms' legalization intend to skim off.
So, it's safe to say the renowned heavyweight completely lost his first major fight for municipal interests. And it's not surprising, considering that the main architect of both the current "Budkograd" legalization scheme and its previous version is the same person.
This remarkable gentleman's name is Andrei Vavrysh, and he serves as Deputy Director of the Department of Urban Development and Architecture. What's even more remarkable is that, unlike the vast majority of senior city officials, Vavrysh has successfully weathered all the vicissitudes of the revolution and is calmly doing what he was appointed to do four years ago by then-Chief of the Presidential Administration Sergei Levochkin and Head of the State Property Management Department Andrei Kravets.
Here's what former Kyiv City State Administration head Volodymyr Bondarenko had to say about this character in an interview with the website "Obozrevatel": "I want to say that the 'overseer' system was developed in all areas: it was sectoral, territorial. We find it in some departments... When Kyiv's chief architect, Mr. Tselovalnik, first came to me, I asked him, 'What does your deputy do without certain qualifications, without an architectural education?' He replied, 'They sent him as an 'overseer,' but he figured it out—he knows architecture better than I do."
The fact that, by law, Vavrysh, with his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, could only work as a supply manager in the Kyiv City State Administration didn't bother his employers. Like Tselovalnik, they understood with a keen sense that when reaping the riches of urban planning and architectural solutions, a specialized education only hinders one's vision. Therefore, a nimble, natural-born electrician is far more useful here than some certified specialist burdened with the burden of professional and moral conventions.
As a result, the nimble Vavrysh, at the Kyiv City State Administration, handled everything he could get his hands on with his greedy hands—including, for example, issuing final design specifications for any construction project in the capital. According to developers, such a document, prepared by him during Yanukovych's time, "cost" around $50,000.
The hardworking Andrei Valentinovich was so dedicated to his work that in 2012, following an investigation by the Prosecutor General's Office into his professional activities, a reprimand was added to his personal file. And in early 2013, during a prosecutorial audit of the Department of Urban Development, he was even temporarily suspended from his position on suspicion of abuse of power.
Regarding small architectural forms, since 2010, Vavrysh has been actively involved in developing all procedures for placing kiosks, which were subsequently approved by Kyiv City Council decisions. Apparently, this is why these regulations have always been fraught with corruption risks, leading to them being rewritten almost annually, changing the rules beyond recognition. But these increasingly convoluted procedures always had one thing in common: every entrepreneur immediately understood that bribes were a guaranteed necessity.
The true "pearl" of Vavrysh's work was the Comprehensive Scheme for the Placement of Temporary Structures (TS) for Commercial, Residential, and Social and Cultural Purposes for the Implementation of Entrepreneurial Activities, approved on December 13th of last year by order of the administration.
More than half a million hryvnias from the city budget were siphoned off by "pocket" developers to prepare this plan. It was supposed to indicate locations suitable for small architectural forms. However, as it turned out, only 4-5% of the potential kiosks' locations matched the addresses of kiosks that had been legally installed 10-15 years earlier, and whose owners had dutifully paid into the city treasury. However, the Comprehensive Plan abounded with kiosks installed without permission and locations for new facilities agreed upon in advance with the clients.
The idea was that law-abiding entrepreneurs would be forced to fork out bribes or say goodbye to their businesses. Meanwhile, the "supervisor," Andrey Vavrysh, would be able to earn tens of millions of dollars for himself and his bosses by re-dividing the capital's small architectural forms market.
Following the February events, acting head of the Kyiv City State Administration Volodymyr Bondarenko, under pressure from outraged merchants, suspended the Comprehensive Scheme for the Placement of Kiosks, initiated the development of a new procedure for the placement of these structures, and even promised to fire Vavrysh for fraudulent practices in its development.
However, Bondarenko's good intentions remained just that. Following the municipal elections, Vitali Klitschko assumed the reins of Kyiv, immediately appointing people close to Yanukovych's "grey cardinal" to key positions in the city administration. Igor Nikonov (Lyovochkin's neighbor in the "Golden Gate" cottage community and an old business partner of Firtash) and Pavlo Ryabikin (Lyovochkin's protégé in the UDAR parliamentary faction) became deputy mayors. Three more "Cossacks" from the RosUkrEnergo group (Dmytro Turchak, Oleksandr Kubrakov, and Bohdan Balasinovich) became advisers. Thus, Klitschko repaid Lyovochkin for the financial, administrative, and media support that brought the UDAR party into parliament in 2012 and its leader to the top of the city government a couple of years later.
Meanwhile, "supervisor" Vavrysh, who retained his position thanks to Klitschko's diligence in repaying his debts, immediately began reviving his scheme to legalize small architectural forms. He did so deftly that he managed to convince members of three parliamentary committees (land, budget, and trade and entrepreneurship) to include the share contribution bill on the agenda of the next Kyiv City Council plenary session. He even found the necessary arguments to convince those members of parliament who had previously stated that the draft resolution on share participation could not be approved without a current plan for the placement of small architectural forms (on August 18 of this year, the Kyiv Administrative Court ruled the Comprehensive Kiosk Placement Plan illegal).
Given this fact, don't expect street vending to be regulated anytime soon. However, the prospect of lining someone's pockets at the expense of kiosk and drive-in coffee shop owners is quite real. And indeed, "Architect PI" (as the long-suffering Kyiv vendors affectionately nicknamed the deputy director of the Department of Urban Development and Architecture) has plenty of other interesting ideas.
For example, the city authorities intend to offer kiosk owners the option of relocating to apartment buildings as an alternative. "If you want to preserve your jobs, you don't necessarily have to stick to a specific small architectural form; you can do as they do in the West and set up shop in the basements of buildings," Vavrysh said in an interview with the Khreshchatyk newspaper.
At the same time, the thoughtful architect from Levochkin clarified that the rental price for such premises, at 300-500 UAH per square meter, is quite advantageous for tenants. "You can take out a loan, renovate the premises, and pay annuity," he added.
It's worth noting that the "overseer" prudently kept silent about the amount of the "annuity" the tenants would have to pay him and his landlords for their inhuman kindness. Perhaps out of modesty, or perhaps because only the long-armed mayor of Kyiv, who has abandoned the capital to the ravens, would be able to reveal the amount.
Special correspondent
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