Under the new Ukrainian government, old corruption schemes are still in effect, - expert

Kyiv, April 04 (Navigator, Vladimir Mikhailov) – Although the authorities in Kyiv have changed, the corruption schemes remain the same, according to the public organization “International Human Rights Assembly “Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine”.

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In a conversation with a Navigator correspondent, Deputy Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine Alexander Senko gave several examples of corruption schemes currently in effect, “inherited” from the old government.

In particular, according to Alexander Senko, in the near future the capital’s President-Hotel PrJSC will go to the Odessa group of Kaufman and Granovsky, which currently already controls it through the Quad company, which is part of their sphere of influence. In 2009, the State Property Fund leased the President Hotel to the Quadr company for 25 years. The State Property Fund announced its decision to privatize the hotel last fall, and then they started talking about the fact that the asset would most likely go to its current tenants.

March 24, 2014 acting President of Ukraine Alexander Turchynov signed decree No. 334/2014, which, in particular, instructed the State Property Fund to accelerate the privatization of the private joint-stock company “President-Hotel”, management of corporate rights of which was transferred to the Fund from the State Administration of Affairs, in accordance with the order of the Cabinet of Ministers dated October 1, 2012 No. 726- R. According to Alexander Senko, the hotel privatization scheme is completely opaque.

Another example of a working corruption scheme is the so-called. state lotteries. According to the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, state lottery operators “Ukrainian National Lottery”, “Molodsportloto”, “Patriot” are private companies that control slot machine halls. According to Alexander Senko, it became possible to register private slot machine halls as state lotteries thanks to the adoption of the Law “On State Lotteries” in 2012. The expert who gave an opinion on the adoption of this law indicated that certified slot machines, which are now used in gaming halls, are a new form of lotteries.

Thanks to the efforts of the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, it was possible to close a number of slot machine halls in Kyiv, but about half of such establishments continue to operate.

The theft of natural resources in different regions is another example of a business based on corruption. In particular, in a number of districts of the Kyiv region, there are illegal sand quarries. “They also steal black soil,” says Alexander Senko. “Tractors remove the top layer of soil, load it onto cars and sell it on the highways. Cars with black soil, sand, and stone can be seen at any exit from Kyiv.” According to estimates by the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, only in the Brovary district there are now several dozen such quarries and sites where black soil is removed. Taking into account the fact that 60-80 cars are removed from one quarry per day, and the price of one car of sand is about 800-1400 UAH, the state is incurring millions of losses on a district scale. Illegal development of natural resources not only deprives the budget of funds, but also damages the environment.

According to Alexander Senko, there is currently no reason to expect that such schemes will be stopped. All high-ranking internal officials involved in such schemes continue to remain in their positions.