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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Minister of Defense Stepan Poltorak dismissed acting head of the Ministry of Defense’s Quartering and Maintenance Department (KMU) Colonel Andriy Bernaz.
Minister of Defense Stepan Poltorak dismissed acting head of the Ministry of Defense’s Quartering and Maintenance Department (KMU) Colonel Andriy Bernaz. According to the defense minister, the main fault of the officer is that the military towns were not prepared for the winter season.
A month ago journalists from the program “Our Money” found that the troops were not delivered the coal for the winter of 2014–2015 despite having paid 20,19 million UAH for the coal. The Main Quartering and Maintenance Department of the Armed Forces tried to conceal the crime: the troops were not supplied with coal that had been paid for with state funds already in 2014. In response to the journalists’ inquiry, the military replied that everything had been delivered in accordance with the contract terms. However, the journalists discovered that the private firm violated the agreement and failed to deliver coal on time worth 13 million UAH.
At the end of 2014, the Western Territorial Quartering and Maintenance Department of the Ministry of Defense signed a contract with the firm “VP ZVZ” for the supply of 16 thousand tons of gas coal for more than 20 million UAH. The tender was carried out by negotiated procedure because the open competition had earlier been canceled and the coal was urgently needed. Thus, the KMU chose the supplier at its own discretion.
At the beginning of 2015, Our Money journalists established that the winning company “VP ZVZ” delivered 769 tons of poor-quality coal to the military towns of the cities of Rivne and Ternopil. After the segment aired, a criminal case was opened, and Minister of Defense Stepan Poltorak promised to conduct an internal investigation of the facts presented in the segment. However, as soon as the publicity subsided, the criminal investigation was shelved.
Under the contract terms, ZVZ was to deliver coal to the troops by the end of 2014. However, most military towns were left without fuel during the winter.
At the end of August of this year, in an official response to a journalists’ request, the Main Quartering and Maintenance Department of the Armed Forces reported that the company “VP ZVZ” fully fulfilled the contract terms and delivered 16 thousand tons of coal. The response also states that the western department transferred funds to the firm in the amount of 20 million UAH, and the firm replaced the poor-quality fuel.
This information is not true. According to a number of court decisions, the prosecutor’s office is still suing over the coal that ZVZ was supposed to supply. Now, in September 2015, the prosecutor’s office is demanding via court to replace 910 tons of poor-quality coal that the firm delivered to Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Mukachevo, and Khmelnytskyi. And this is only part of the fuel that the private firm did not deliver to the soldiers.
The military prosecutor’s office of the Western region began litigation against the unscrupulous supplier back in April 2015. Law enforcement demanded delivery of 13 thousand tons of coal already paid for by the military. During the court dispute, ZVZ began distributing the fuel, and the claim was reduced to 9 thousand tons for almost 11 million UAH. However, the coal that the firm began distributing was low quality, so the prosecutor’s office demanded its replacement.
Thus, how much coal was not delivered to the troops remains only a matter of conjecture. The current head of the Main Quartering Department of the Armed Forces is hiding the truth.
Payment — upon delivery
To pay 20 million UAH to a private firm — officials, according to the contract terms, had the right only upon actual delivery of the coal. However, the money was transferred to ZVZ’s account already in 2014, and the military are still litigating over the coal.
This trick was accomplished with the involvement of the former head of the Main KMU of the Armed Forces, Yana Hruzynska. Two weeks before the contract expired, she wrote a letter to the leadership of the Western Territorial KMU and its subordinate departments demanding they sign an additional agreement.
The terms of that agreement stipulated that the coal paid for by the military would be stored in ZVZ’s warehouses. In other words, the military paid money, but their coal was stored by the private supplier. Such an agreement allowed payment for coal that officials had not even seen. Under the new agreement, the fuel was to be delivered by the end of February 2015. However, the prosecutor’s office is still suing ZVZ in September of this year.
Law enforcement demands delivery of coal to Vinnytsia, Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Chernivtsi, and Yavoriv. The soldiers of these military towns did not receive it in the winter. Meanwhile, acting head of the main department — Andriy Bernaz — is trying to conceal the crime. At the time the department was headed by Yana Hruzynska, who also tried to conceal the delivery of poor-quality fuel, Andriy Bernaz was her first deputy.
Our Money journalists found that even at the end of August the military had not received the coal. As of 20.08.15, 345 tons of fuel had not been delivered to the quartering and maintenance unit of Yavoriv. Lviv was also left without coal. There, the military were forced to accept poor-quality goods. However, the officials refused.
During preparation of the segment, Our Money journalists unofficially obtained a report on an internal audit of the Western Territorial KMU. The report states: “an over-norm provision of coal in the amount of 17 thousand tons was established.” It was precisely 17 thousand tons that the company ZVZ was supposed to deliver. Thus, in 2014 the military might not have had to buy coal at all, but simply redistributed it among military units and departments. The largest over-norm provisions were found in Chernivtsi, Vinnytsia, Lviv, and Khmelnytskyi.
The report also states that “requests to receive over-norm coal from the respective KEV (KECh) to the address of the Western KMU were not sent.” In other words, officials without any requests regarding the need and quantity of coal did not receive it, but simply formed abstract requests, paid the money and ultimately did not receive the fuel. Thus, in the winter of 2014–2015 the soldiers had something to heat the barracks with, but these were stocks from previous years.
In September 2015 the Western KMU held a new tender to purchase fuel. Meanwhile, the coal paid for back in 2014, which was urgently needed, the military still have not received.
During preparation of the segment, Our Money journalists discovered that the company “VP ZVZ” bought coal from the companies “VZP” and “Prostir.” Lviv tax inspectors established that these are fictitious firms. The director and founder of these companies, Oleksandra Fominykh, admitted that she was the owner of the firms only on paper: she did not conduct any transactions related to the sale or purchase of fuel and in general does not know what activities “VZP” and “Prostir” conduct. Oleksandra Fominykh was recorded as owner of the firms a week after the signing of the contract between the Western Territorial KMU and “VP ZVZ.”
The court fined the woman for involvement in fictitious entrepreneurship.
Recall that earlier, in 2015, after the Our Money segments, three heads left the Main Quartering and Maintenance Department of the Armed Forces: the head of the Main KMU — Yana Hruzynska, who carried out the purchase of poor-quality coal, and her two deputies — Avagim Galstyana, who built a hotel on the territory of a military plant, and Valeriy Faist, who received a hectare of land from the Ministry of Defense for free.
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