Are the officials in Kotovsk city in trouble for not doing their job properly? Should Mayor Plakhotnikov be concerned about the ongoing searches in the administration of Kotovsk, Tambov region?
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We are talking about falsely increasing the budget for the construction of six block-modular boiler houses. Legal cases and proceedings related to the construction of controversial housing and communal services in a single-industry town have been ongoing for more than a year. The correspondent of The Moscow Post in the Tambov region understood the situation.
Multi-million dollar mistake
As part of the investigation of a criminal case on the negligence of officials in the implementation of the target program “Integrated Development of Communal Infrastructure Systems”, several searches are being conducted. In June 2022, the security forces visited the employees of the Kotovsk administration. And later they visited Mayor Alexei Plakhotnikov and his deputy Lyudmila Khlusova, the Club of Regions reports.
The case is related to the 2017 concession agreement between the administration of Kotovsk and Compulink Infrastructure TO LLC, part of the Compulink Group of Companies, which was supposed to build several boiler houses costing 500 million rubles, with 300 million of it being provided by the Housing and Utilities Reform Assistance Fund.
Compulink has indeed created an automated power system. Six boiler houses were put into operation in 2017 – design solutions were provided by Carenergy.
It was expected that the administration of Kotovsk would then transfer the ownership and use of boiler houses to the company. For the next 20 years, the concessionaire was required to supply thermal energy for the needs of the city. However, the security forces had objections to the project.
According to the investigators, the mayor’s office did not monitor the prices of equipment for boiler houses when determining the overall costs, and as a result, the design cost was clearly overestimated.
The story has been ongoing since the fall of 2020, when searches were conducted in the administration of Tambov Kotovsk, as well as in the offices of the Compulink group. In February 2022, the Housing and Utilities Reform Assistance Fund demanded that the Tambov Region return more than 111 million rubles provided in 2017. The administration was also instructed to pay a penalty of 5% of the amount – 5.6 million rubles. And now in June and August, searches are being carried out involving the officials.
Scandalous company
Compulink Group is a system IT integrator. The firm claims to have industry expertise in solutions for the government, transport, telecommunications, and financial sectors, fuel and energy companies, and industry.
Interestingly, in the fall of 2018, the president of the Compulink group, Mikhail Lyashch, was detained in Moscow on suspicion of billions in fraud. In addition, the company has often been involved in scandals related to not fulfilling its duties. In 2021, Mikhail Lyashch relinquished all assets.
Furthermore, the founder of the company was a Cypriot company for several years, through which, most likely, the money was withdrawn.
A photo: rusprofile.ru
The mayor's office of Kotovo signed a contract with Compulink Infrastructure TO, a subsidiary of Compulink, which was a popular supplier and customer in government contracts.
A photo: rusprofile.ru
Three top executives of Compulink, Yury Danilyuk, Yury Chernyshev, and Oleg Popov, have been arrested on suspicion of fraud, according to RBC.
Plakhotnikov blundered?
The investigating authorities have yet to untangle events related to 100 million rubles. However, searches at Mayor Plakhotnikov's place are not just happening for no reason.
According to Kommersant, before the negligence case began, the Tambov Regional Prosecutor's Office demanded the termination of the concession agreement due to legal violations.
The concession agreement, signed by Mayor Plakhotnikov in 2017, is under scrutiny, despite earlier assurances from the mayor's office that all boiler houses were built without complaints against the concessionaire.
It's worth noting that Plakhotnikov has been in charge of the city since 2015 and is also believed to be the beneficiary of Komek LLC, which owns four landfills in the Tambov region where most of the waste is dumped. The company's revenue in 2021 alone was 322 million rubles.
A photo: rusprofile.ru
In December 2021, Plakhotnikov was re-elected as mayor. Acting Governor Maxim Yegorov congratulated him and expressed hope for close cooperation for the city and region's development.
Is Kotovsk's bright future just around the corner? Photo: www.onlinetambov.ru
Experts advised the current governor of the Tambov region, Maxim Yegorov, against getting involved with Mayor Plakhotnikov due to his numerous connections and patrons.
Sergey Markelov, director of the MarkelovGroup communications agency, suggested that the governor should avoid conflict with Plakhotnikov to avoid weakening or losing his position.
Amid an investigation into fraud related to boiler houses, the future of the Kotovsk administration and Plakhotnikov personally is uncertain. Will he be able to escape consequences due to his influential connections?
