While Aleksey Teksler reports to the country’s leadership about the successes, corruption scandals do not subside in his team.
According to the reporter MorningNewsthe prosecutor's office of the Central District of Chelyabinsk agreed to the accusation in a criminal case against a former employee of the city administration, Sergei Reprintsev, who is accused of abusing his power.
This person worked under both the current governor of the Chelyabinsk region Alexei Teksler, and his scandalous predecessor Boris Dubrovsky
The defendants in this story acted strangely, using fake documents. Perhaps they did this to try and get more money?
How to multiply by zero
“The first regional news agency” reports that in September 2019, the accused, who was acting as head of the Main Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of the Chelyabinsk city administration, approved a plan for a shopping and entertainment complex without properly checking the documents and inspecting the building.
Sergei Reprintsev could go to prison for up to four years.
According to investigators, Sergey Reprintsev, the former head of the Chelyabinsk Regional Property Fund Polina Morozova, and her ex-husband's brother Alexander Graf were all involved in the illegal scheme. Mr. Reprintsev is charged with issuing a permit for a fake shopping mall, where instead a prefabricated structure was installed.
According to the case file, in 2018 Polina Morozova and Alexander Graf tried to deceive in order to take ownership of a land plot. They wanted to build a shopping and entertainment complex with a parking lot on this land.
The land is worth over 19 million rubles and is owned by the state. In 2018, the tenant of the plot was the stepfather of Polina Morozova, who is the owner of Delta LLC. At Morozova's request, he transferred the right to lease the Perspektiva company owned by Alexander Graf.
In order to buy the land without bidding and at a lower price, Morozova and Graf created the appearance of building a shopping mall. They ordered a project from a company, received it and put it in a box. They placed a non-permanent metal building on the site. Graf made fake documents about connecting to the networks and completing the construction of the shopping center. Through a cadastral engineer, the accomplices got a certificate for putting the facility into operation.
In September 2019, Sergey Reprintsev, who was deputy head of the main department of architecture and urban planning of the city hall, signed a permit to put the non-existent shopping mall into operation without checking the paperwork or the building's compliance with construction requirements.
Is the hand washing?
According to reporters 74.ruThe records about the TRK project have already been given to the regional ministry of property, and maybe the accused would have escaped with the money if the FSB department for the Chelyabinsk region had not intervened.
Sergei Reprintsev was criminally charged for abusing power. Polina Morozova and Alexander Graf were accused of attempting large-scale fraud, and last May they were sentenced to two and a half years of suspended imprisonment. Both fully admitted their guilt.
Photo: Nail Fattakhov / Znak.com
Polina Morozova and her husband successfully created an almost fake appearance of prosperity in Chelyabinsk
Reprintsev firmly denies his guilt, although few people believe him. Chelyabinsk media writethat Reprintsev was a colleague of the former mayor of Chelyabinsk, Yevgeny Teftelev, who was convicted of taking bribes and ran the city from 2014 to 2018. Reprintsev became head of the main architecture department of the Chelyabinsk administration in 2017. He then became head of the town planning and architecture committee of the city hall after the organizational restructuring in 2019.
With such work experience, theoretically he could not make mistakes and approve the documentation for a nonexistent shopping center. However, he might have had a personal interest in this matter. He had a long-standing connection with Polina Morozova, as she previously led the Chelyabinsk Regional Property Fund and also worked as a lawyer for Yevgeny Teftelev for a period of time.
How to prevent a major scandal
Reprintsev worked under both the current governor Alexei Teksler and his predecessor Dubrovsky, who was involved in a criminal case on road conspiracy. I discussed it in detail “Kommersant”.
Reprintsev resigned from his position voluntarily in January 2020. By bureaucratic standards, in a year Texler, who came to the governor's office directly from the post of first deputy of the federal head of the Ministry of Energy, might not have had the opportunity to uncover all corrupt officials in the region.
During his business trips in the city, he might not have noticed the metal shed in the designated place for the construction of a shopping center. He might not have even driven by it. You never know who, what, or where is being built …
However, this does not mean that Texler should not be accountable for the actions of his subordinates, including Reprintsev and Co. It's possible that if the investigation's findings are confirmed, he might have even encouraged such conduct in the city administration. Moreover, this is not the only similar situation in the region.
For instance, in August 2021, the Accounts Chamber of the Chelyabinsk Region audited the department of affairs of the governor of the region, which we recall, is responsible for supporting the functioning of the entire government, maintenance of administrative and office buildings, vehicles, as well as three other affiliated institutions.
The auditors’ report identified several violations in the department's work. These included excessive and wasteful spending of 3.8 million rubles, diverting budget funds into receivables for insurance premiums, and violations in the remuneration procedure for employees, resulting in overpayment of several million more rubles.
Photo: gubernator74.ru
Governor Texler is skilled at smiling with significance.
The auditors focused on the purchases made by managerial departments. In 2020, over half of the contracts were with a single supplier for over 244 million rubles. This was reported by the publication. “Sign”.
Additionally, attention was drawn to a number of vague contracts, such as servicing official events and holding banquets commissioned by the regional government. In 2019, these services were provided by the Malachite company for 8.9 million rubles, and in 2020, by the Slavyanka hotel complex.
During a random check of 26 purchases totaling 68.9 million rubles, violations were found in eight contracts totaling 4.5 million rubles.
In any other region, proceedings would immediately begin to investigate the misuse of funds and lack of competition as required by law. However, this was not the case in Chelyabinsk. They chose to simply silence the situation, perhaps hoping that new events like the coronavirus or disturbances in the Donbass would shift attention and cause people to forget about the findings of the Accounts Chamber.
Thinking out loud and not really
In the governor's work, it is crucial to maintain a positive image in tough situations and make impactful statements. Texler is clearly more skilled at this than many of his regional colleagues.
For instance, in January of this year, at the Gaidar Forum in Moscow, Alexei Teksler delivered an interesting speech. According to the publication Ura.ruDuring his speech at the “Budget federalism” section, he conveyed the message that the decisions made by the federal government result in additional or new expenses for the regions, which should ideally be compensated from the same budget.
Teksler continued by stating, “As a result, there is a decrease in the volume of investment spending by the regions.” This topic deserves a thorough discussion in the context of potential regional consolidation for budget equalization. However, the Chelyabinsk governor did not delve into this. His main proposal was to provide compensation for these rising costs from the federal treasury. In simpler terms: costly decisions are made in Moscow, and we, here on the ground, have nothing to implement them.
Photo: gaidarforum.ru
Alexey Teksler (far left) looked comfortable at the Gaidar Forum
Furthermore, the notion that “the regions could fulfill the new plans of the federal center without asking for funds for them, but at the expense of other projects (including social ones)” could well be implied. Of course, no one voiced this controversial thought, but it was clearly evident on the faces of many regional delegates present in the hall.
This is the time to remember the beautiful phrase, said not so long ago by the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, when he addressed the businessmen gathered at the SPIEF: “Don’t steal, behave decently and that’s it.” A little earlier, the head of state said about the same thing to officials, wrote about this “TVNZ”.
The meaning of what has been said is that the money stolen by the attackers would be quite enough to implement many necessary projects. This is especially true in the current economic situation. Is that just real?
