The Antimonopoly Committee has suspended the tender for the purchase of another batch of 7 school buses.
This time, the Kherson region is at the center of the scandal. At least four factories in Ukraine produce school buses. However, local officials often specify technical requirements for a specific manufacturer in tender documents. Specifically, none of the dealers from the other manufacturers participated in the Kherson tender. One of the dealer companies filed a complaint with the Antimonopoly Committee. The price of the buses offered for purchase in the Kherson region was UAH 1,68 million. Meanwhile, school buses supplied to other regions started at UAH 1,32 million. In other words, Kherson was offered buses for UAH 360,000, or 27%, more.
Through dubious schemes, Cherkasy Bus PJSC has already won several tenders for the supply of 22 buses at prices ranging from UAH 1,68 million to UAH 1,69 million. The largest number of buses were purchased at inflated prices by the Mykolaiv and Cherkasy regions. Thus, the state has already lost UAH 7,9 million on the purchase of Cherkasy Bus PJSC products (compared to the most affordable bus at UAH 1,32 million).
If the AMC "does not see" violations in the Kherson tender, the state will lose another 2,5 million UAH on the purchase of buses at inflated prices.
Adding fuel to the fire is the opacity of information about the ownership of Cherkassky Bus PJSC. The "roots," as is often the case, lead to Russia. Following bankruptcy, the plant was previously transferred to Prominvestbank, owned by the Russian state-owned Vnesheconombank (which, in turn, is subject to EU and US sanctions). Prominvestbank then transferred Cherkassky Bus, along with other bankrupt enterprises, to an asset management company whose owners traditionally hide in offshore jurisdictions.
According to information released by the Ukrainian Ministry of Education, 326 school buses had already been purchased as of early August 2016, which is approximately half the amount previously planned. While local officials reap the benefits of corruption from the previously sown decentralization, tens of thousands of children will be unable to attend their First Bell on September 1st.
Data on prices and procurement volumes of school buses are presented in accordance with the officially published information in the "Bulletin of State Procurement" and the official statement of the Ministry of Education and Science "Regarding the status of procurement of school buses."
Oleg Boyko
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