SBI probes Kyivteploenergo contractor awarded 1.94 billion UAH

Nearly 2 billion UAH contract for company with minimal staff

The municipal enterprise Kyivteploenergo, headed by Vyacheslav Binda, signed a series of contracts for repair works at Kyiv's thermal power plants. The total value of these agreements reaches nearly 1.94 billion hryvnias. The contractor was LLC Kyivkotloturboprom. It is noted that this contractor's official staff consists of only three employees.

SBI investigation: suspicions of financial fraud

The activities of Kyivkotloturboprom have attracted the attention of the State Bureau of Investigation. The company is suspected of using a scheme through which at least 25.5 million hryvnias may have been transferred abroad.

According to available data, the incident is linked to the purchase of Italian energy equipment. The mechanism for the possible transfer of funds involved the use of double invoices.

Not the first precedent of cooperation with resource-limited firms

Kyivteploenergo's cooperation with companies that have limited human and material resources is not an exception. Previously, investigative journalists recorded a direct contract worth 537.8 million hryvnias with LLC "IBK Atmosfera Management". This same entity received a contract for the construction of a heat pipeline worth over 1.3 billion hryvnias without conducting open tenders.

Similar to Kyivkotloturboprom, Atmosfera Management had only three employees on its payroll and a small volume of assets.

Questions about the transparency of fund usage

The signing of large contracts without open competition with enterprises that have limited staff raises questions about the transparency of the use of budget funds.

Particular attention is paid to the risk of engaging such companies as intermediaries who then pass the works on to subcontractors. In such situations, there is a risk of inflating the cost of works and transferring financial resources. At the same time, as noted, the fact of having a small number of employees is not yet evidence of violations.