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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
“Boryspil Cleaning”: why spend 52 million on a nonoperational airport
On Monday, 19 June, it became known that Boryspil Airport plans to sign a contract for comprehensive maintenance of the terminal buildings, parking, and other airport facilities for almost 52 million UAH.
The public immediately wondered why such a large budget sum would be spent on cleaning a nonoperational airport that has been closed since the start of Russia’s open invasion. Discussion of the matter drew attention to the airport director Oleksii Dubrevskyi, whose name has previously appeared in corruption scandals in a similar position as head of the Zaporizhzhia airport. Read the details in the Apostrophe article.
Cleaning “expensive-and-plenty”
According to information posted on the Prozorro public procurement website, services are to be provided from 1 August 2023 to 30 July 2024, that is, for 12 months. The tender winner must perform cleaning in the terminals and other airport buildings at Boryspil, including 831 sinks, 800 toilets, 233 urinals, and 167 showers. Documents to participate in the tender will be accepted until 28 June.
The observant public immediately noted the simple fact — Boryspil has not operated for more than a year because of hostilities. What cleaning could there be? After the episode with “drums for bomb shelters,” the tender organized by Boryspil’s management looked, at minimum, odd.
“If you think people steal less during wartime, you are very mistaken. They will steal even more on tenders, and the tenders themselves will be idiotic, like with the drums. How sensible it is to spend 52 million on cleaning the airport is hard to say, because it’s not as obvious as drums for a shelter, but you should bear in mind that in times of economic trouble there will be many such ‘drums.’ Unfortunately, officials live for today and in a general crisis want to ‘make’ as much as possible here and now,” StateWatch head Hlib Kanevskyi told Apostrophe.
When the media outcry started, Boryspil’s press service said that although the airport is not operating, the administration needs to maintain the production premises in proper condition, since the facility continues to function, albeit in a very limited mode.
“According to the tender documentation, requirements for daily, round-the-clock, and continuous provision of services do not apply during martial law in Ukraine,” the airport explained.
As the company’s management insists, constant cleaning of the premises is a guarantee of the enterprise’s normal functioning and a quick restoration of the airport’s operational activities after Ukraine’s victory. The administration will be able to regulate the frequency of cleanings.
“This is confirmed by the inclusion in the tender documentation of the airport’s right to reduce the volume of purchased services in case of production necessity and the absence of an obligation to order services in full for each cleaning group,” the press service insisted.
Against such arguments, only a rhetorical question remains — where is the airport’s supervisory board looking?
“Asking Boryspil’s supervisory board why the management announces such strange contests is pointless. Supervisory boards at state enterprises (Boryspil, Ukrzaliznytsia, etc.) do not perform their functions, they just take large salaries from the budget. On the other hand, our anti-corruption system is unbalanced in the form of NABU, SAP, and NACP. SAP has shown itself to be extremely unsatisfactory,” Mykhailo Dyadenko, head of the Center for Legal Analysis and Political Risk Research, told Apostrophe.
Oleksii Dubrevskyi. Ties to the “DPR”
Judging by the situation, the supervisory board’s activity here is purely nominal and limited to formalities. In the summer of 2021 the Boryspil Airport supervisory board announced Oleksii Dubrevskyi the winner of the competition for the position of general director.
According to his biography, at the time of appointment Oleksii Dubrevskyi had 15 years of experience in managing aviation infrastructure. In 2010–2012 he was director of Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines operations in eastern Ukraine.
He then worked as commercial director of the municipal enterprise International Airport Donetsk, which was destroyed in 2014 during the Russian invasion in eastern Ukraine. Until 2016 Dubrevskyi worked abroad as director of the commercial and business development department at Ras Al Khaimah International Airport (UAE).
According to Oleksii Dubrevskyi’s declaration, he and members of his family own three apartments in occupied Donetsk.
Media repeatedly reported that Oleksii Dubrevskyi’s father, Yurii Dubrevskyi, remained in the occupied territory after the start of Russian aggression in 2014 and held the position of head of the Donetsk Institute of Physical Culture and Sport.
Currently, according to information on separatist sites, Yurii Dubrevskyi is the head of the Department of Cyclic Sports at the so-called Donetsk National University. After the Russian occupation of ORDLO in 2014, the university relocated to Vinnytsia and was renamed Donetsk National University named after Stus, but some lecturers and students remained in Donetsk.
Zaporizhzhia connection
In addition to Donetsk, where Dubrevskyi’s father remained, the airport head has direct ties to Zaporizhzhia. In 2017 he began as deputy director for commercial matters at Zaporizhzhia International Airport, and a few years later became director.
According to Forpost, while heading the Zaporizhzhia airport Dubrevskyi worked for the benefit of former head of the Zaporizhzhia metallurgical plant Rostyslav Shurma, who is connected to Rinat Akhmetov’s Metinvest and Vadym Novynskyi.
It was reported that companies affiliated with them serviced aircraft and handled cargo operations at the airport.
It was also emphasized that Dubrevskyi’s wife, Olena, is the sister of the wife of Alexii Lebedev, director of capital construction at the Zaporizhzhia metallurgical plant.
Shortly after Oleksii Dubrevskyi’s appointment as head of Boryspil Airport, the SBU uncovered facts of fraud.
According to information provided by the SBU press service, the then management of Zaporizhzhia Airport (namely, Dubrevskyi and his colleagues) allowed violations during the runway repair process.
According to the investigation, the official of the municipal enterprise International Airport Zaporizhzhia ignored the quality of work during runway repairs performed in 2017–2018. Instead of appealing to the contractor over poor workmanship and demanding warranty remedies, the suspect found a new company to redo those sections.
As a result of the official’s improper performance of duties, double the funds were spent on the works, causing economic damage to the municipal enterprise of more than 9 million UAH.
All these “tails” are actively surfacing now, when Boryspil’s administration, against the backdrop of war and economic problems, organizes such strange contests, and the American press openly writes that theft in Ukraine will seriously hinder the country’s postwar recovery.
“Western representatives, as they admit in private conversations, are worried about theft in Ukraine and the ‘ingenuity’ of our officials. Within postwar reconstruction they will try to create mechanisms to influence corruption through NABU, the SBI, and other bodies, as well as through information and public opinion. It’s not a given that they will succeed, because our corrupt people have learned not only to hide their ‘tails’ but also to actively sabotage any changes that could potentially harm them. Moreover, Western bureaucracy is not perfect either,” co-founder of the Nash Hroshi project Oleksii Shalaiskyi summed up for Apostrophe.
Volodymyr Shevchuk
skelet.info
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "«Бориспільське прибирання»: навіщо витрачати 52 млн на непрацюючий аеропорт". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
