Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
An influential “regional” showed how to recover 35 million from the army when it has no money
The court recovered 35,42 million UAH of debt from the Ministry of Defense in favor of LLC “EkoOil.” This is evidenced by the ruling of the Higher Commercial Court of Ukraine dated 5 December.
This amount is the ministry’s debt under the contract dated 16.05.2012, when the Ministry of Defense purchased 862 tons of fuel from the company 36 for a total of 76,91 million UAH, including cargo handling and transportation costs.
In performance of that contract, the company supplied the ministry with gasoline totaling 76,16 million UAH during the period from 05.07.2012 to 18.12.2012. The Ministry of Defense paid only 33,56 million UAH, resulting in a debt of 42,60 million UAH. After EkoOil filed a lawsuit, the ministry paid the company another 7,18 million UAH, reducing the outstanding debt to 35,42 million UAH.
Courts at all three instances satisfied the company’s claim based on the terms of the contract and the fact that acts of completed work had been signed. As the court noted, at the time the claim was filed the gasoline payment term had come due.
At the same time, the court dismissed the Ministry of Defense’s arguments about lack of funds as unfounded, as well as its reliance on the contract clause stating that payment is made subject to receipt of budget funds to the ministry’s account under the relevant expenditure code. The court stated that this contractual provision merely establishes the procedure for settlements. Meanwhile, the payment deadlines are set within 30 days from the date the invoice is received from the company. Therefore, the Ministry of Defense must pay for the goods received, and “the issue of the ministry’s financial provision of obligations is not the subject of this dispute.”
Among the founders of the Donetsk LLC “EkoOil” are Serhiy Tron, Roman Arkalaiev, and Nurulislam Arkallaiev, a People’s Deputy from the Party of Regions, an influential businessman and president of the Donetsk Region Judo Federation. The company’s director is Denys Volobuiev.
EkoOil began winning government tenders in August 2011. Since then the company has received contracts from the Ministry of Defense and Ukrzaliznytsia to supply fuel totaling 1 056,16 million UAH.
Rule of law
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Авторитетний «регіонал» показав, як стягнути з армії 35 мільйонів, коли у неї немає грошей". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.