Billion flows of SE “Document”: Tkach’s company “GERC” has been servicing payments for years — Media

LLC "Payment Center "GERC"" (and related structures of Kostyantyn Tkach’s group) has long been monopolistically servicing payments for the services of SE "Document". This is an enterprise of the migration service responsible for issuing and registering citizens’ documents. Its role has grown especially since the start of the full-scale war, when a significant number of Ukrainians were forced to leave their homeland.

This is reported by investigators.

Billion flows of SE “Document”: Tkach’s company “GERC” has been servicing payments for years — Media

People needed new documents abroad and were willing to pay substantial amounts for legalization. Businessmen took advantage of this. Officially, there is no indication that SE "Document" has a contract with "GERC". This only becomes known after submitting an application for a new passport. Citizens are provided with payment details through a specific payment system, with no alternative options available. In effect, officials of the state enterprise leave no opportunity to choose another payment method.

"GERC" holds an NBU license for money transfers without opening accounts and acts as a payment intermediary. SE "Document" (an enterprise under the State Migration Service) uses it to accept payments for passport and other administrative services. The public text of the contract between the parties is not available in open sources. The existence of a commission is confirmed only by the tariffs on the company’s own website.

Billion flows of SE “Document”: Tkach’s company “GERC” has been servicing payments for years — Media

Only on the "GERC" website is the commission for such payments explicitly stated — 3% + 10 UAH. This is one of the company’s business lines alongside accepting utility payments, fines, and other services. At the same time, this line is not reflected in the company’s general list of services. At the end of 2024, Olena Kyselyova, Commercial Director of LLC FC "GERC", noted that one of the company’s key achievements that year was the successful launch of payment acceptance at SE "Document".

Billion flows of SE “Document”: Tkach’s company “GERC” has been servicing payments for years — Media

At the same time, Tkach’s companies are toxic for state structures. The ESBU has repeatedly opened proceedings under Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (tax evasion). The materials mention companies of the "GERC" group, particularly through the alleged use of fictitious counterparties and overstatement of VAT tax credit. Searches at the group’s office on Yevreiska Street in Odesa were conducted, among others, in July 2024. The cases have been ongoing since 2021–2022.

In 2024, the State Audit Service identified violations at SE "Document" amounting to approximately UAH 71 million: unjustified bonuses and allowances, payments for unworked time, as well as procurements without proper procedures exceeding UAH 52 million.

Are there alternatives to such payment intermediaries?

A number of licensed payment services operate on the Ukrainian market that accept payments for services of state and municipal enterprises:

– LiqPay (PrivatBank) — one of the largest systems, with a commission usually ranging from 1.5–2.75%.
– Portmone — has long worked with utility and budget payments.
– WayForPay, EasyPay, iPay, NovaPay, and others.
– Banking applications (Privat24, monobank, Oschad 24/7, etc.) — often allow direct payments using account details.

For service centers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, its own "Payment Hub" has already been implemented. It generates a single payment document with a QR code that can be paid via mobile banking or any other service. The system automatically calculates the amounts of fees and reduces the risk of errors. So far, the hub operates mainly for vehicle registration actions, but it was planned to be expanded to other services.

Regarding SE "Document", there is no public information about the mandatory use of "GERC" specifically. In practice, citizens can often pay using the enterprise’s details through a bank or other services if such details are provided. At the same time, in many cases, the site or on-site offers the integrated intermediary (in this case — "GERC"), as it is technically more convenient for the enterprise itself.

Given the scale of cash flows (SE "Document" has already provided services worth over UAH 1 billion to the SMS) through a payment intermediary, the existence of prolonged tax investigations into the "GERC" group, and confirmed corruption violations within SE "Document", the NABU, SSU, SBI, and the State Financial Monitoring Service have grounds to thoroughly examine the nature of cooperation between the enterprise and the payment company, the terms of contracts, the volume of commissions, and possible risks of money laundering or abuse.

Tkach, like an octopus, has for years extended his tentacles into various state authorities, primarily the Ministry of Internal Affairs system, extracting the most valuable assets and turning state cash flows into private profit.

And here the question is not only about Tkach, but also about the state itself: has it really failed over a decade to create its own modern payment system?

Why has the state for years allowed a private businessman to profit from state cash flows, and, if relevant evidence exists, for the funds ultimately to end up in offshore jurisdictions through persons connected to the law enforcement system?

And most importantly: who all these years ensured the inviolability of this model?