Everyone's bluffing

Thanks to the ingenious corruption scheme of the 2011 road auction, top officials in the Leningrad region could become 11 billion rubles richer.

At the beginning of June, the police conducted a search at the Road Committee in connection with a case of fraud during the repair of the Pikalevo-Strogi-Kolbeki highway. This case is the first sign in a high-profile corruption scandal brewing in the Leningrad region. Now the prosecutor's office is checking the 2011 auction for 11 billion rubles allocated for the repair and maintenance of roads over the next three years. The winners of the auction were mainly road repair construction departments (DRSU) owned by the government of the Leningrad region, which by law did not have the right to participate in it. Materials at the disposal of Novaya indicate the involvement of a number of high-ranking regional functionaries in this story.

Auction for your own

The auction we are interested in (bidding number A-293/10), which took place at the beginning of 2011, was the last tender according to classical rules: the competition was announced on December 29, 2010, and from January 2011 all such procedures began to be carried out electronically , which made it extremely difficult to “program” the results of competitions.

There are 21 lots in the auction - each involves concluding a contract for the maintenance and repair of roads for three years in the territory of an entire region of the region. The average starting price for each lot is about half a billion.

According to the terms of the auction, the companies participating in it first had to make a deposit - 5% of the original cost of the lot in which they were going to participate (on average about 20 million rubles). In addition, they were also required to provide security in the amount of 30% of the cost of the lot (on average about 150 million rubles) - either in money, or a bank guarantee, or a guarantee from a successful enterprise.

Formally, such strict conditions should cut off hunters for easy money. In fact, with the cost of lots amounting to hundreds of millions of rubles, even making a deposit is a difficult task for most real participants in the road construction market. When it comes to providing collateral, the situation is even worse.

As a result, only DRSUs belonging to the Leningrad Region and companies playing along with them were able to participate in the auction - to create the appearance of a competition, and on a couple of lots - large Moscow players who had reduced the price on their plots below the minimum, but still “lost” to the local ones.

But it is especially interesting that, as follows from the documents discovered by Novaya, in fact, these draconian conditions were not even able to be fulfilled by the winners - the state DRSU.

Suspicious approvals

The fact is that many regional DRSU are on the verge of bankruptcy. Huge debts did not allow these enterprises to independently pay the deposit for participation in the competition, much less provide security (Novaya previously wrote about this in No. 94 for 2012, No. 9 for 2013). However, it was the victory of the DRSU that made it possible for the people who control them to receive the greatest benefit from the 11 billion rubles allocated for the auction. Therefore, DRSU receive financial assistance.

Here, for example, is a loan agreement dated March 10, 2011, according to which a certain Vega-2000 LLC transfers 20 million rubles to the Lomonosov DRSU State Enterprise. at 12?% per annum, and not just like that, but “in order to secure an application for participation in an open auction (bidding number A-293/10) to carry out work on the maintenance and repair of roads in the Lomonosov region (lot No. 10).” And here’s another loan agreement dated February 21, 2011: Energy Construction Company LLC provides the Kingisepp DRSU State Enterprise with 18 million rubles. with the aim of “providing the opportunity to take part in the auction A-293/10 for lot No. 7” - maintenance and repair of roads in the Kingisepp district.

However, Art. 24. “Law on State-Owned Enterprises” dated November 14, 2002 No. 161-FZ directly states that SOEs can borrow only in the form of loans under agreements with credit institutions - that is, with banks, and not with some LLCs. This means that these loan agreements were concluded in violation of the law. Moreover, they have the right to borrow “only in agreement with the owner of the property of the unitary enterprise of the volume and directions of use of the funds raised.”

The owner of all DRSU of the Leningrad region is the State Property Management Committee. In 2011, when all these agreements were concluded, the chairman of the regional KUGI was the current governor of the Leningrad region, Alexander Drozdenko. Why was he not aware of the illegal actions of enterprises owned by KUGI?

Mister Subcontractor

Why should some LLCs provide loans to state-owned enterprises that are mired in debt? The relationship between the State Enterprise “Roshchinsky DREU” and LLC “General Construction Corporation” (GSK) allows us to shed light on this mystery.

Roshchinsky DREU won lot No. 15 - maintenance and repair of roads in the Vyborg region. As a result, it entered into a government contract for 400.6 million rubles with the Road Committee. Of these, “for road repairs” - 293 million 608 thousand 591 rubles. 93 kop. A month and a half after this, on May 20, 2011, Roshchinskoe DREU enters into agreement No. 1 with GSK LLC “to carry out work on the repair of regional roads in the Vyborg region” for a total amount of 293 million 608 thousand 591 rubles. 93 kop. That is, he gives every single penny of money received under a government contract to his subcontractor!

This is nonsense from a business point of view - to give everything to a subcontractor without any compensation for yourself. Why then win at the auction? Moreover, where will the DREU get the money to carry out its part of the work - after all, even if GSK LLC repairs everything as expected, the Roshchinsky DREU must accept this work, draw up documents, report on the state contract to the committee - all this will result in certain costs that will have to be replenish from your own funds. It turns out that winning the auction will only bring losses to DREU.

One-day guarantors

How did DRSU, burdened with debts, even if future subcontractors paid deposits for them, manage to provide security in the amount of 30?% of the contract value?

Most of the security is issued through a surety. The Leningrad Region Road Committee confirmed that 12 auction winners used the services of only five guarantors.

Two of these five companies have already ceased to exist: Gelios LLC was liquidated, and TODD LLC was reorganized by merging with another company. Let us remind you that the contracts based on the results of the auction in 2011 were concluded for three years - that is, they are still valid now, and work, in theory, should continue this year. If the winning DRSUs completely go bankrupt and are unable to repair and maintain the roads, and the guarantors no longer exist, does it mean that the money will simply evaporate?

There is a high probability that the guarantors are penny shell companies. Responding to Novaya’s request, committee chairman Alexey Lvov stated that “the committee does not carry out work to verify the existence of guarantor companies.”

Imaginary guarantee

Three DRSU issued bank guarantees as collateral. In particular, Prigorodnoye DREU received a guarantee from Mostransbank - such a document was attached to the government contract concluded between Prigorodnoye and the committee. During the investigation, which is currently being carried out by the prosecutor's office of the Leningrad region, an official response from Mostransbank was received: “A bank guarantee was not issued in relation to the State Enterprise Prigorodnoye DREU.” Moreover, Prigorodnoye “never contacted the bank with a statement of intention to obtain such a guarantee.”

We are talking about document forgery and fraud. According to the false agreement on the provision of a bank guarantee (it was also attached to the government contract), the Prigorodnoye DREU had to pay a reward of almost 500 thousand rubles. - only for some reason it had to be sent not to Mostransbank itself, but to the account of a certain Technical Support Management LLC, which was done.

Heroes

All the above-described “oddities” could not escape the attention of a number of regional officials. First of all, this is, of course, the organizer of the auction and the immediate supervisor of all directors of the DRSU - Chairman of the Committee on Road Facilities Konstantin Kharakozov (replaced at the end of January of this year by Alexey Lvov). Then - specialized vice-governor Nikolai Pasyada, who controls Kharakozov’s work (now also lost his position). Anatoly Puzhlivy, director of the Lenavtodor State Institution, which acted as a customer under government contracts, had to closely monitor the ups and downs of the auction. The current governor, Alexander Drozdenko, was then in charge of KUGI, which means that, according to the already mentioned Article 24 of the Law on State-Owned Enterprises, he had to “coordinate the volume and direction of the use of raised funds.” When agreeing on an agreement to receive a bank guarantee, he first of all had to ask: why does the reward for receiving it go not to the bank itself, but to some LLC? But he didn’t ask.

However, in a commentary for Novaya, the press service of Alexander Drozdenko denies his involvement in possible fraud during the auction in 2011. “The approval of transactions related to the provision of loans, guarantees, and the receipt of bank guarantees of the enterprise is carried out by industry executive authorities,” they say in press service, referring to the Regulations on the procedure for coordinating, regulating and monitoring the activities of state-owned enterprises in the Leningrad region, approved by Decree of the Government of the Leningrad Region dated August 2, 2001 No. 78.

The industry body in our case is the Road Committee, that is, all the big shots should supposedly fly towards Kharakozov alone. However, paragraph 1.5 of Regulation No. 78 states: “The Leningrad Regional Property Committee, together with industry bodies, exercises control over the intended use and safety of the property of the Leningrad Region transferred to enterprises and institutions.” And under loan agreements, DRSUs are responsible with their property - therefore, KUGI is obliged to be aware of such transactions.

In addition, paragraph 6.1.1 of the said provision states that the head of the DRSU “sends quarterly copies of the financial statements to the Leningrad Region Property Committee.” In order for KUGI to control the activities of subordinate organizations.

The press service also refers to the Regulations on Lenoblkomimushchestvo, approved by Decree of the Government of the Leningrad Region dated April 23, 2010 No. 102: “The powers of officials of Lenoblkomimushchestvo do not include the approval of loans from enterprises and the approval of the execution of bank guarantees.” In the same provision there is, for example, paragraph 2.27, which states that “KUGI takes measures to bring to justice those responsible for violating the established procedure for managing and disposing of state property of the Leningrad Region.” As already mentioned, under loan agreements, DRSUs are responsible with their property, which means that such agreements directly relate to KUGI - and it was KUGI, as we see from clause 2.27, that was obliged to be the first to identify all the violations described in our article and “take measures.”

Meanwhile, the auction ended without a hitch, and 11 billion rubles. were perfectly pumped through the DRSU into the not yet installed pockets.
The prosecutor's investigation into the described facts continues.