The corruption octopus in the port Pivdennyi

The corruption octopus in the port Pivdennyi

Thus, the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine sent the first deputy director of the State Enterprise "Sea Commercial Port Pivdennyi" to jail as a preventive measure for 2 months, who is accused of organizing a corruption scheme during tenders.

It is known that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office have announced suspicions against 11 more individuals – representatives of the current and former management of the port. So what happened at SE "Sea Commercial Port Pivdennyi"?

It turned out that NABU has been investigating large-scale embezzlement through tender schemes at SE "Sea Commercial Port Pivdennyi" for more than two years, since September 2017. To date, there are already several dozen court rulings regarding criminal proceedings No. 4520170000592 under Article 191 Part 5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (embezzlement on a particularly large scale).

According to the investigation, the acting director of the Pivdennyi Port, Vitaliy Zhukovskyi, who was appointed to the position on December 26, 2016, and dismissed for abuse of office, as well as his first deputy Roman Inde (appointed on January 21, 2017), and the acting deputy director for material and technical support Oleh Traydakalo, appointed on March 9, 2017, and dismissed on October 29, 2019, by mutual agreement, along with the well-known deputy director for economics and finance, appointed on February 7, 2017, Serhiy Kovshar, were involved in organizing corrupt tender procurements. Thus, from 2017 to 2019, 14 private companies became winners of most tenders of the Pivdennyi Port.

Companies LLC "TEKHNOSOLUTION", LLC "TETCOM-GRUP", LLC "MILLENIUM MARITIME", LLC "ALUR-GRUP", and others were interconnected and controlled by the port management – the acting director V. Zhukovskyi, first deputy R. Inde, deputy chairman of the tender committee (at that time) S. Kovshar, deputy director O. Traydakalo. The supply of goods/works/services for SE "Sea Commercial Port Pivdennyi" was coordinated through the former director of LLC "MILLENIUM MARITIME" M. Zherebtsov, a longtime business partner of Inde. Meanwhile, at the direction of Inde, Kovshar, and Traydakalo, the tender committee prepared tender documentation for a pre-determined product and winner, including discriminatory conditions, rejecting the price proposals of other bidders. Also, at the direction of R. Inde and O. Traydakalo, employees of the material and technical support department of the port transferred information about the need to purchase goods/works/services to the officials of the above-mentioned business entities for searching real suppliers of goods/works/services through these enterprises for SE "Sea Commercial Port Pivdennyi".

Thus, from April 10, 2017, to April 23, 2018, the mentioned companies won more than 50 tenders at SE "Sea Commercial Port Pivdennyi" for a total amount of 305,934,554.86 UAH, with the overpricing of goods/works/services amounting to over 152 million UAH (the price to the port was more than twice the price from the manufacturer).

After the resignation of Vitaliy Zhukovskyi on June 23, 2018, from the position of director of SE "Sea Commercial Port Pivdennyi", Andriy Yablunivskyi was appointed as the acting director of SE "Sea Commercial Port Pivdennyi", but on November 4, 2019, he was illegally dismissed from this position allegedly for non-compliance with the terms of the contract. Currently, A. Yablunivskyi is appealing the order of the Minister of Infrastructure regarding his dismissal.

On November 29, 2019, A. Oliynyk was appointed as the port director. However, despite the very positive dynamics of the enterprise’s work, he was unexpectedly dismissed for reasons unclear to the entire port staff.

Moreover, from August 19, 2020, by the order of Prime Minister D. Shmyhal, the compromised participant in corruption schemes S. Kovshar was brought to the port’s management, appointing him as the acting director of SE "Sea Commercial Port Pivdennyi", and he, in turn, reinstated the previously dismissed O. Traydakalo as an advisor on procurement issues, and later appointed him as the authorized procurement officer.

In essence, they let the fox back into the henhouse.

Thus, the entire corrupt group, which had been actively embezzling SE "Sea Commercial Port Pivdennyi", gathered again under the "wise" leadership of S. Kovshar with criminal plans to continue plundering the state port for the benefit of their commercial interests.