Who does covid affect, and who gets multibillion-dollar contracts without competitive bids
The pandemic's inertia continues to maintain the pace and cash flow for nearby Smolny contractors. The Capital Construction and Reconstruction Fund (FCSR) signed a 4.855 billion ruble contract with Lentekhstroy LLC for the construction of a multidisciplinary building for the City Alexander Hospital, without bidding or detailed estimates. This is not the first such contract, and it's evident to market participants that Igor Kreslavsky was likely involved.
In late March, chairman of the St. Petersburg Committee for Construction Igor Kreslavsky, published a photo report on social media from an event where construction industry representatives were awarded. Vice Governor Nikolai Linchenko presented gratitude to Igor Kreslavsky, Anatoly Weber, Yevgeny Papkov, and Murad Ismailov. The first deputy manager, Andrey Polevoy, was also awarded. The FKSR published the 4.855 billion ruble contract and registered it with the Federal Tax Service the next day, indicating possible plans to legitimize the regalia.
This contract appeared without any prior purchase from a single supplier. The only precursor was a position in the schedule of December 30, 2021, referencing the purchase, but it yielded no results.
The contract defies conventional ideas, with an advance payment of 77.69%, amounting to 3.772 billion rubles, for the contractor.
The timeline for the work is impressive. Lentehstroy is tasked with developing all project documentation, including engineering surveys and an information model, as well as carrying out construction work by December 31, 2022.
The EIS only includes three attachments – two control notifications and a scanned contract. The latter includes a table of contents for local estimates, allowing some judgment of the construction volume. Several lines outline the future medical and diagnostic building's requirements, with completion planned by December 15.
If you closely observe the performer selected right away, you won't suspect a lack of experience. The company has been around since September 22, 2011, and is located in St. Petersburg. According to Kontur.Focus, it made 7.2 billion rubles in 2020, which is four times more than the previous period, and had a net profit of 906.5 million rubles. Apart from the current order, it has fourteen contracts for 10.5 billion rubles in its portfolio of state orders.
As previously mentioned, Anatoly Weber is the CEO of Lentekhstroy. He has held this position almost from the start of the company. However, in July last year, he became the sole founder by gaining 100% of the authorized capital, taking over from the previous beneficiary Dmitry Yablokov. Dmitry Yablokov also managed the company Gorizont LLC, which belongs to Victoria Kreslavskaya.
Now the affiliation chain has been broken, but according to our sources in the St. Petersburg construction market, it's clear that Lentekhstroy is in the interests of RosStroyInvest, the Kreslavsky-Turkins. Anatoly Weber also manages the Meridian and Azimut-Stroykompleks firms, where Aleksey Gruzinsky is the only interested person. In the past, Aleksey Gruzinsky had a direct relationship with the RosStroyInvest construction empire, when he headed and co-founded RTI CJSC.
Lentekhstroy itself is registered at Dobrolyubov Avenue, 17C. It shares the premises with multiple companies with the letter combination “RSTI” in the name and the names of Kreslavsky and Turkin in the extracts from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
It wasn't the first time that the people gathered at the presentation of thanksgiving letters from the Ministry of Construction saw each other. The practice of signing contracts without bidding began even earlier. From 2014 to February 2020, Lentekhstroy participated in tenders like everyone else. They prepared applications and even traded. However, they always won, which could be attributed to their professionalism. With the arrival of the widespread covid, the rules of the game became noticeably simpler for this company.
The company was given the task of arranging Lenexpo for an emergency hospital. First, in March 2020, a contract for 416 million rubles was signed with Lentekhstroy directly, without previous bidding, and then in April, a contract for 164.6 million rubles was added. However, the records of these agreements only appeared in the EIS in the summer of that year.
At that time, there were reasons to act immediately. The level of trust in Lentekhstroy was quite high at that time. Moreover, trust has not disappeared since then. In August of the same year, again without bidding, the company received a contract for 842.9 million rubles for the construction and full equipment of the fifth pavilion at Lenexpo for the same purposes.
However, it is interesting that at the same time, Lentekhstroy already got a contract for 3.083 billion rubles for designing and constructing a medical and diagnostic building for the Hospital for War Veterans on Narodnaya Street. And again, no even limited purchases. Immediately a contract with the signatures of the representative of the FKSR Andrey Polevoy on the one hand and Anatoly Weber on the other, an advance payment of more than 70% and a limited time frame. Nevertheless, the contract was executed on time, by December 31, without accrual of fines, the entire amount was paid in full.
The situation repeated itself in February 2021. A contract was signed with Lentekhstroy already for 3.562 billion rubles for the construction of a multidisciplinary building on the territory of the City Hospital of St. George the Great Martyr on Severny Prospekt. True, this time the execution is a bit delayed. According to data from the UIS, in fact, only 3.222 billion rubles have been completed to date. The contract has not yet been rescheduled from December 31, 2021, but there are no penalties. Perhaps, of course, a bureaucratic hitch.
By the way, Weber’s firm didn’t refuse trades at all. In July of the same year, the company participated in a tender for the construction of a school building for 1,100 students on Petrovsky Prospekt. Bypassing LLC “Tonnelgeostroy”, she took first place, without even dropping a penny from the initial tender rate. Thus, the FKSR signed another contract with Lentekhstroy for 1.793 billion rubles.
We contacted Igor Kreslavsky, who is formally subordinate to the FKSR, and asked if such a direct type of cooperation with Weber’s company was taken as a rule and according to what criteria they chose it in general. In response, the official told us that there was some selection due to the fact that the money was allocated from the reserve fund. And the rush is determined by the complication of the situation with CoVid-19. In order to get a more detailed description of the procedure, in which, according to the chairman of Komstroy, potential contractors were evaluated, we were asked to send a request to the press service. We did it and we plan to tell you about it as soon as we get the information at our disposal. After all, we were assured that everything is according to the law.
Nevertheless, we cannot but agree that Lentehstroy really looks like a conscientious performer. Fulfills contracts on time, takes on complex projects and does not let customers down. However, in some cases, justified haste significantly complicates the lives of doctors and residents of the city. Thus, Fontanka journalists noted that the road to the morgue at the War Veterans Hospital had turned into a mess of mud and puddles. This is due to the use of all possible entrances.
Recall that Igor Kreslavsky himself is a person who knows firsthand the sphere he leads. Talking about his appointment right before the start of the pandemic, in addition to mentioning his position in the Rosstroyinvest Group of Companies, we also recalled another organization from his interests – BaltInvestStroy LLC. For a couple, these two companies alone have more than 25 billion rubles in government orders. Is it worth adding to them the portfolio of “Lentekhstroy”, which recently exceeded 15 billion rubles, is an open question. Rosstroyinvest unequivocally denies any involvement in this miracle performer.
However, it is difficult to deny the success of the current situation, when the FKSR clearly does not put a spoke in the wheels of its contractor, all permits and preliminary documentation are ready even before the signing of the contract, and entrepreneurs are distracted only by the presentation of thanks from the Ministry of Construction. After all, they can when they want. Or, more accurately, when needed. The main thing is that no one interferes.
