The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has found manifestations of Ukrainian corruption in 65 countries, the press service of the NABU has reported. “Ukrainian corruption is traced in 65 countries. Most often, detectives have to seek help from law enforcement officials in Latvia, Cyprus, the U.K., Germany and Switzerland. For its part, the National Bureau also tries to respond promptly to requests received from foreign colleagues: 90% of them were satisfied,” the NABU said in a statement.
The NABU sent about 500 requests for international legal assistance to the competent authorities of other states. Of these, 118 were only in the second half of 2018, of which 52 were answered. The purpose of requests is to find out the circumstances of committing corruption offenses, as a result of which the interests of Ukraine were damaged.
NABU explained the need for international communication by the fact that the majority of corruption schemes provide for the participation of companies registered abroad. Typically, these companies play the role of intermediaries which leave the lion’s share of revenues of state-owned companies. In the future, the organizers of the schemes legalize these funds and spend them for their own needs, including for financing political projects.
Examples of criminal proceedings in the NABU, the investigation of which was led by detectives abroad, are: the embezzlement of UAH 247 million at state-owned enterprise (SOE) Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, causing a loss of $60.5 million to PJSC State Food and Grain Corporation. The NABU and Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) estimated that, due to corruption involving foreign contractors, the state interests were damaged in the amount of about UAH 7 billion.
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
Burisma Group, a gas producer, in January 2019 started building a gas pipeline that would connect Vodianivske and Karaikozivske fields in Kharkiv region and plans to invest UAH 60 million in the project, the company’s press service has reported.
The company expects that the new gas pipeline will allow boosting efficiency of operation and management of flows between the two fields. The length of the new gas pipeline will be 16.6 km.
Burisma Holdings controls Energy & Service Company Esko-Pivnich, LLC KUB-Gas, LLC Pari, the First Ukrainian Gas and Oil Company, SystemOilEngineering, Nadragas, Aldea-Ukraine, Burisma Service, Tehnokomservis, NadraGazVydobuvannia, GasOilInvest, and NGPGeo (Oil and Gas Industrial Geologia).
Mykola Zlochevsky is Burisma’s beneficiary.
PJSC Kyivoblenergo has announced a tender to build the Boryspil solar power plant with a power capacity of 5 MW at 36A, Zaporizhska Street in Boryspil, Kyiv region.
According to the ProZorro e-procurement system, the expected cost of works is UAH 7.305 million. Bids can be submitted before March 1. The auction is to take place on March 4.
At the end of 2017, the executive committee of the Boryspil City Council provided Promin-Energo LLC with town-planning conditions and construction restrictions on a land plot at 36A, Zaporizhska Street in Borispol for the construction of a 5 MW solar power plant. At the end of 2018, Promin-Energo LLC obtained a license to generate electricity for the first stage of the solar power plant at the specified address with a capacity of 996.36 kW from the National Commission for Energy, Housing and Utilities Services Regulation (NCER).
According to the public register of owners of legal entities, as of February 2019, Promin-Energo LLC with a statutory fund of UAH 60 million belonged to four individuals – Eduard Nikitiuk, Yulia Merezhko, Ihor Protsenko and Asatur Baghdasaryan.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (Dnipropetrovsk region) in 2018 invested over UAH 600 million in environment protection.
According to the company’s press release, environmental measures allow the company to comply with environmental regulations established by law.
At the same time, the press service said that the company annually allocates funds for the implementation of major investment projects, as well as for the repair of fixed assets related to environmental protection. The repairs help to maintain equipment in working condition and not to increase the burden on the environment.
Thus, in 2018, in the metallurgical production units, repairs were made to gas treatment plants of sintering machines No. 1 and No. 5, twin-steel steel-making unit No. 6, converter No. 3. Also, repair work was done on power equipment (combined heat and power plant three, cooling towers, and water lines).
In the mining department in 2018, the modernization of the crushing and ore-dressing plants was actively carried out: the gas-cleaning equipment was reconstructed, slurry pipelines were repaired and pump units were replaced in the slurry workshop. Last year, the company carried out startup works to launch new aspiration units of sections Nos. 4, 5, 6 of the ore-dressing plant No. 1.
In addition, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, when implementing large-scale investment projects, introduces the best available technologies, thanks to which it is possible to gradually reduce the burden on the environment. Major investment projects include the reconstruction of coke-oven batteries Nos. 5 and 6 using a set of environmental measures and an automated environmental monitoring system, the modernization of the sinter shop No. 2, the construction of two new machines for continuous casting of billets and new gas treatment plants and the introduction of an automated eco-monitoring system, reconstruction of ore-dressing plants of the mining department, peak boiler house, tailing dumps and other projects.
From 2006 to 2018, the enterprise invested UAH 6.2 billion in the environment, over 120 gas treatment plants were reconstructed and built, thereby achieving national standards.
