For 2021, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced new ambitious plans for the construction of roads in Ukraine. The first task is to restore local roads. Despite the coronavirus, the state budget has provided unprecedented sums for these purposes. However, even in this barrel of honey there is a spoonful of tar. All bright ideas in our country, as always, rest on the numerous bureaucratic fraternity, which has no more important task than to fill its bottomless pockets. And whether the roads will be built and the president's promises fulfilled, no one cares anymore. Officials report badly on the "unprecedented" pace of work. And what is the situation in reality?
We will try to figure this out. Recently, the regional administration announced plans to repair 28 roads in 2020 for a total of UAH 1,2 billion. And the most interesting thing is that work has already begun on as many as six objects. On the street, we remind you, it is mid-June. Although excellent weather conditions begin in early spring, work has only just begun. And what about the other 22 objects? According to the administration, they are subject to public procurement procedures.
What is happening? Thanks to the prozorro.gov.ua portal, anyone can get any information without any problems. A simple analysis shows that the Department of Regional Development of the State Administration has already held at least 27 tenders for road repairs. And here we observe the most interesting thing - the answer to the riddle "how to quietly steal 80 million?". The total amount allocated by the state for these tenders is UAH 402 million. The total amount determined during the bidding process is 356 million. Thus, at first glance, the participants even saved the state as much as 46 million UAH. Everything is logical and valid. It seems — sign contracts with the winners and get to work. However, something always goes wrong. Despite the fact that tenders were announced at the beginning of November, contracts in most cases have not been signed.
Having analyzed the course of the auctions, one can see what fierce battles were fought to win. All purchases take place in an auction format, when participants gradually reduce prices. The one who gave the lowest price wins. And what do we see? And we see the following: in fact, during the bidding process, the real winners offered the sum of 275 million. This is as much as 81 million less than those who were announced as winners. At the same time, contracts were signed with completely different participants, who occupied either the last or penultimate places during the auction. All the real winners of the tender, who gave the lowest price, the officials simply "threw out" from the tender procedures under fabricated reasons, concentrating all the winnings exclusively in "their" companies. The total amount to be paid by the state is mythically increased by a shocking 81 million hryvnias.
