Share |

Friday, April 03, 2009

Despite Crisis, Govt Agency Stocks Up on Luxury Cars


Taxpayer money is a cheap commodity in Ukraine, as far as the government is concerned.

As Ukrainians struggle to make both ends meet, Obozrevatel tells another story of how much their government costs them.

At issue is the State Committee of Ukraine on the State Material Reserve, aka Derzhkomrezerv, the government agency that keeps a safety stock of food and fuel to be used in case of emergency.

Speaking of emergency, in late 2008 and early 2009, Derzhkomrezerv filled its reserves with durables other than those declared in its mission statement.

Derzhkomrezerv used state-owned company Resurspostach to buy/rent a splendid fleet of nine Toyotas, worth from $50,000 to $500,000.






Not bad for an organization deep in debt, and one that offers deep discounts by holding less-than-open bids to sell its inventory once it nears expiry date.

In an interview with Obozrevatel’s Tetyana Chornovil, the vice chairman of Derzhkomrezerv, Mykola Synkovsky, admitted no wrongdoing.

I bet he has a picture of Tymoshenko or Yushchenko hanging on his office wall. Well, maybe he keeps a Yanukovych somewhere in the back office.

What he really needs is The Judgment of Cambyses, the painting that every Ukrainian official must have.

Sources:
http://obozrevatel.com/news/2009/3/26/294011.htm

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tell us more about the $500 thousand, Toyota. It must really be pimped out! Is it bullet proof or something?

Taras said...

Obozrevatel does not go into such detail:)

It's probably a quintuple-charged car. According to the reporter's initial findings, Derzhkomrezerv “rented” this car for its boss in May 2007, at a price of Hr. 2.4M ($475,248).

Further investigation revealed that the boss currently drives another car, a Lexus, bought in late 2008, not in May 2007.

Bottom line, “Any car as long as it's taxpayer-paid.”

Max said...

that's a great piece on a great blog, we love that you bring information about the creativity, soulfulness and diversity of the Ukrainian spirit into the world. Awesome. Keep going. Thanks for that. We are crazy about Kyiv and the Ukraine!!!

Taras said...

Thank you, Max!

On this blog, I keep a little window on political Ukraine. Btw, as a matter of political correctness, we say Ukraine, rather than the Ukraine.

We do say Kyiv, rather than Kiev, though:)