Law enforcement agencies continue to expose corruption schemes in the forestry industry, which cause significant losses to the state budget. Another episode was the actions of the managers of agroforestry farms in Sumy Oblast, which caused millions of dollars in losses for the country.
Recently, the SBI announced the completion of the pre-trial investigation of 7 heads of agroforestry farms in Sumy Oblast. According to the investigation, purchase and sale contracts were concluded directly with certain entrepreneurs at discounted prices. Valuable species of trees were mainly for sale. Because of this, the state did not receive nearly 11 million hryvnias.
Currently, a number of so-called undercover activists initiated the so-called reform of trade schemes in forest farms based on the principle of offers.
Thus, at a press conference in Kyiv on January 22, journalists identified Daniil Malandiya (head of the NGO Open Forest and a businessman) in support of the offer in the group of such pseudo-activists.
One gets the impression that it is actually proposed to scale the practice of Sumy foresters under "direct contracts" of the offer at the level of the entire country in all regions. That is, the scale of corruption abuses and damage to the budget can reach billions of hryvnias. However, it is the offer that is currently being defended by Malandiy.
— You generally misunderstand the position regarding the offer... An offer is a public offer of a forest user (seller). That is, it is his step, his initiative [to sell wood] to an undefined circle of subjects (or a defined one), if it is an offer. And he must accept at this price, or not accept. I do not think that this is some kind of panacea. In relation to today's system of quasi-exchange trading, an offer is a business reaction to some kind of guarantee to continue working, said Malandii.
He also confirmed that today he continues to do business in the field of timber trade, but allegedly does not support the offer. However, as follows from his words, someone needs to "work further".
We will remind you that earlier the surname Malandiya appeared in a number of high-profile corruption scandals involving the derybation of forests in Sumy Oblast.
Thus, according to the investigation portal CorruptUA, a criminal group has been operating in Sumy Oblast for a long time, which included Malandii, among others, as the head of the stock exchange committee of the Sumy Resource Exchange and the founder of the UTESistem, Utesistem+, and Utesytrade companies of the same name.
Investigators uncovered a scheme that operated for a long time and allowed the criminal group to enrich itself by causing losses to local forest farms. The scheme in Sumy Oblast was rolled back simply: only selected companies were admitted to the auctions (or for a separate unofficial fee, or sometimes with a guarantee of 100% of the initial value of the lot).
Even before the start of the auction, participants were already distributing valuable wood at questionably low prices. Moreover, according to the estimates of anti-corruptionists and mass media, the difference between the real market value of the wood and its actual price at such fake auctions could have gone to Malandi and his accomplices.
According to the calculations of the expert environment and law enforcement officers, due to such a "schematosis" of the forest farm of the Sumy region. received losses from UAH 50 to 70 million annually.
As you know, an offer is a direct contract, when wood is distributed between buyers in a manual mode (which opens a window for corruption). If an enterprise bought wood last year, this year it can claim 75% of last year's volume. But at prices that are determined manually.
However, if a newly established firm or company with large investments (including foreign ones — which is now important for Ukraine) appears, then this, according to estimates, is a net decrease in competition. That is, playing along with internal schemers and corrupt officials at the level of forest farms and their pocket companies.
