Tymoshenko Helps a Tycoon Bag a Hr. 900M Contract

Q: What does it take to cancel an open bid and instead choose a certain company as the lead contractor?

A: The Tymoshenko Cabinet.

In yet another must-read article, Ukrayinska Pravda's Mustafa Nayem continues exploring the unstoppable wheeling and dealing in the world of Ukrainian government.

As part of preparing Lviv Airport for Euro 2012, the government initially planned to award a Hr. 900M/$118M modernization contract in an open bid. To organize the bid, Transport Minister Yosyp Vinsky sent a directive to Lviv Airport Director Oleksandr Zahreva in late January.



Four companies applied.

However, on March 17, Minister Vinsky issued another directive. This time, he ordered Lviv Airport to cancel the open bid, citing orders from PM Tymoshenko.



That’s despite the fact that reversing the course put Vinsky and Tymoshenko in violation of a host of Cabinet regulations, Nayem reports.

Guess who emerged as the lead contractor? Azovintex, a company owned by Serhiy Taruta, one of the richest men in Ukraine’s rust belt and one of the two men who serve as Tymoshenko’s allies in a region otherwise controlled by the Party of Regions.

Taruta’s partner, Vitaliy Haiduk, has been a prominent figure in the Tymoshenko Cabinet, leading a staff of advisers. He reportedly owns a plant in Hungary and, last year, had a hand in a controversial decision that set sub-domestic rates for Ukraine’s electricity exports.

Such conflicts of interests raise no eyebrows from Tymoshenko and Yushchenko, except in theatrics and in rivalry. At a recent Cabinet meeting, Tymoshenko raised the roof on Defense Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov, amid allegations of fraud in the army’s food supply contracts and land management. She demanded that Yushchenko fire him. (The Defense Minister reports directly to the President. The President's response? You're the one who's corrupt.)

Both Tymoshenko and Yushchenko came to power during the Orange Revolution, after promising to separate business from government. Once in power, they soon ended up separating themselves from their promises.

They may not be aware of it, but their selective ethical compasses bode well for companies like Azovintex.

By the time Azovintex won the Lviv Airport contract, it had already won business government-wise. In November 2008, a Turkish contractor lost the Lviv Stadium contract to Azovintex, after lobbying by Economy Minister Bohdan Danylyshyn and Vice Premier Ivan Vasyunyk, the article says.

Asked about Azovintex, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi praised the contractor and said that the open bid procedure would have taken too long.

In neighboring Poland, which co-hosts Euro 2012, the public can’t wait to get corrupt officials fired or jailed. Not so in Ukraine.

In a country where the Prime Minister ducks questions about her husband’s sources of income and the President taps people like this to run his staff, it’s “business as usual.”

Sources:
http://pravda.com.ua/news/2009/5/14/94667.htm
http://www.epravda.com.ua/publications/48904259a7aaa/

Reinstated! Crackdown General Popkov, Kuchma's Security Chief Radchenko

Newly-appointed Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko, SPU, has found himself a hell of a deputy. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome General Popkov, the wonderful guy who allegedly ordered a strike against peaceful protesters who gathered at Maidan. What a brave soul! He called it off only amid persistent reports that Orange Revolution-friendly security forces might thwart his plans. Secretary of State Colin Powell also pitched in when he put a call through to Kyiv and expressly warned the Kuchma administration against the Kristallnacht, or should we say Kremlinnacht, in the making.

Because the oranges we held in high esteem started rotting and falling too early, the likes of Popkov never got their asses kicked for what essentially was a near-civil war incident. In fact, they are alive and kicking. Small wonder if the Russian Orthodox Church nominates Popkov for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Congratulations, Minister Tsushko! Your screening and selection procedures certainly have the merit of consistency. Keep up the good work!

Oh yeah, we’ve been blessed with another one! Volodymyr Radchenko, also a general and one of Kuchma’s cowboys, has been promoted to Vice Premier. He will be joining a team that currently includes Messrs. Azarov, Klyuev, Rybak, and Tabachnyk, all of them natural born Vice Premiers.

Well-rounded in Kuchmocracy as Minister of the Interior, Chief of the SBU and NSC, Radchenko was valued for not sticking his neck out. His appointment comes in the heat of the war for talent — or shall we say, the war of attrition — raging on between the Yanukovych cabinet and Yushchenko administration. It appears to be a preventive measure meant to boost manpower and thus thwart any spring street agenda Tymoshenko and Lutsenko may have.

When questioned about his Cabinet duties, Radchenko said he will handle national security matters, improve defense capabilities, and coordinate law enforcement agencies, the usual drill.

Meanwhile, the PRU has launched an initiative to truncate the national security apparatus, headed by Vitaliy Haiduk, whose affiliation to ISD, Donbas’s second-largest business group, makes him extremely inconvenient, if not dangerous.

Thanks to the redeployment of mothballed Kuchma HR, the wheel of the Orange Counter-Revolution slowly but inexorably continues its course.

MIB Unsettled by NSC Agenda

Talk about crisis management. It’s amazing how insecure the Anticrisis Coalition, aka the “Men in Blue,” can be when it comes to national security.

The recent NSC meeting offers plenty of insight.

Discussing the mess in the housing and utilities sector was one thing the “Men in Blue,” Yanukovych and Moroz, found too hard for their palate.

Instead of sharing their expertise on an issue that affects the daily lives of an overwhelming majority of Ukrainians living from paycheck to paycheck, Yanukovych and Moroz lodged a note of protest. According to one account, they even walked out of the meeting.

Similar to cats who mark their territory, they glaringly informed the audience that the handling of this issue is the sole prerogative of the Cabinet and demanded that it be from the agenda

Since blue is the official color of the PRU, what made them feel so blue psychologically? What pissed them off?

Why would Yanukovych, the champion of BLT (“Better Living Today”), be so possessive about the lines of authority and yet so inexpressive about his betterment endeavors?

Why would Moroz, the devout Socialist who co-starred in the summer blockbuster “How Goodfellas Got Their Groove Back,” make such a big fuss about talking social security?

Undoubtedly, it's the affiliation of the newly appointed NSC head Vitaliy Haiduk that adds intrigue to the affair. Known as a pragmatic nationalist and, what’s important, as ISD’s man, Haiduk poses a counterweight to archrival SCM, which smells of a turf war of sorts.

However, back to the bread and butter business, in Kyiv alone utility bills have climbed more than threefold, pending finalization by the Justice Ministry. (Attention fans of Mayor Chernovetsky, aka the “King of Handouts!” It’s payback time.)

Of course, Russia smiles on us all, but not all of us can smile back Unlike the oligarchs, who will certainly pull through, having billions of dollars stashed in offshore accounts, and unlike the burgeoning middle class, whose living standards will not suffer much, the urban intelligentsia and working class may fare differently.

What happens if half the country stops paying bills it simply can’t afford? That’s what the “Men in Blue, or better yet “Children of the Coal,” should think about, instead of throwing bureaucratic tantrums.

Just what did they expect national security to be about — poker, or perhaps Monopoly?