Environmental “monopoly”: forestry enterprises gave 65 million for environmental assessment to companies from Yushchenko’s orbit?

Help in preserving protected forests or legalized “protection” for so-called black loggers?

Environmental Impact Assessment (EAI) is an important procedure during which the forest user (forestry enterprise, national park, etc.) is obliged to assess the impact of future logging on the environment. And considerable funds are spent from the budget on its implementation - more than 65 million UAH over the past six years, including the period of martial law. Who makes money from this service? StopCor analysts have established that the market is de facto divided by three private firms, the founders of which may be associated with ex-national deputies.

“Environmental reform” in Ukraine has been the subject of lively public debate over the past six years. Thus, on December 18, 2017, the Law “On Environmental Impact Assessment” came into force, which actually repealed the law of the previous document “On Environmental Expertise” and aimed to introduce a new, more modern and European procedure for conducting environmental impact assessment. However, unfortunately, as the Ukrainian Environmental Group states, the general situation in the forestry sector has not changed for the better. All due to insufficient quality air traffic control systems.

What amounts are allocated by foresters for services related to environmental impact assessment, and who primarily provides them?

The team carefully examined the relevant contracts concluded by forestry enterprises from December 18, 2017 to January 1, 2024 and identified several possible patterns in the tenders.

Consequently, during the specified period, 51.4 million UAH were spent on carrying out the actual ATS procedures. Agreements were concluded with 14 different counterparties, among which we can distinguish four (or actually three, since the two organizations have a similar name and common founders) structures that in total received almost 87% of all funds: LLC “Research and Production Enterprise “Agroproject Ukraine” (over 22 million UAH), LLC Expoconsulting (over 13.1 million UAH), LLC Scientific and Environmental Center “Green Square” (about 5.8 million UAH) and LLC Environmental Consulting Group “Green Square” (about 3.7 million UAH).

In addition, forestry enterprises spent almost another 11 million UAH on additional research that arises during the ATS procedure. In this case, agreements were concluded with nine counterparties, among which two companies stand out, which in total earned more than 10 million UAH: Ukrainian Center for Soil Ecology LLC and Drone Land LLC.

Also, more than a million hryvnia were lost by forestry enterprises on placing materials in the media (publication of announcements) and holding public hearings. Thus, the total cost of conducting the internal affairs procedure for the analyzed period amounted to more than UAH 65 million.

Another interesting section of statistics is information about those performing work to undergo the ATS procedure who were denied a conclusion. These indicators clearly demonstrate which organizations account for more reports and which have more refusals.

And in the top in terms of the volume of “work completed” are the same, already familiar to us, LLC “Scientific and Production Enterprise “Agroproject Ukraine” (67 reports and only 2 refusals), LLC “Scientific and Ecological Center “Green Square” (7 reports and 2 refusals) and LLC “Ecological Consulting Group “Green Square” (14 reports and no refusal). At the same time, for other organizations, refusals account for more than half of the cases.

Analysis of these figures suggests: after the adoption of the new law, the market for conducting ATS in forestry was actually “monopolized” by three limited liability companies.

According to conversations with industry insiders, reports prepared by academic institutions are mostly returned with comments for revision. A similar situation has been observed since 2018 and is systemic in nature, according to our interlocutors.

According to sources, such features of environmental impact assessment in forestry are likely to have lobbyists in the highest echelons of government. In particular, among the adherents of the “reform” are the names of People’s Deputy Yulia Ovchinnikova, who is a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Environmental Policy and Natural Resources Management, and the famous environmental activist, ex-employee of the Ministry of Environment Pyotr Testov.

What is known about the companies that de facto “steer” the conduct of internal affairs activities in the forestry sector?

LLC “Scientific and Production Enterprise “Agroproject Ukraine”, according to the information on the website, provides a full range of environmental services in accordance with current standards and requirements of national and international environmental legislation - from the initial assessment and creation of initial documentation for the facility to obtaining the necessary permits from government authorities bodies that are provided for conducting economic activities among the partners of the enterprise - forestry in Poltava, Zhitomir, Cherkasy, Lviv, Sumy, Chernigov and Volyn regions.

The company with an authorized capital of only 1000 UAH was registered in March 2018 (six months before the new law “On Environmental Impact Assessment” came into force), the director is Yuriy Kotov, and the founder and beneficiary is Dmitry Kotov.

It is noteworthy that, according to information and analytical platforms, Dmitry Leonidovich Kotov in 2004-2006, that is, in the period after the Orange Revolution, was an assistant on a voluntary basis to the Verkhovna Rada deputy from the then pro-government Viktor Yushchenko Our Ukraine Bloc, Vyacheslav Kirilenko.

Exponxalting LLC also, according to YouControl, has a suspiciously small authorized capital - 2000 UAH. The director and sole beneficiary is Nikolai Komissa. According to the registers, he is also the current or historical head of four dozen companies of various profiles.

LLC “Ecological Consulting Group “Green Square” was registered in 2009 and has a wide range of activities - 18. The authorized person and founder is Ekaterina Cherny. She also runs the Scientific-Ecological Center “Green Square” LLC, and is also registered as a sole proprietor in the Ivano-Frankivsk region.

Emsiel Project LLC was registered two months before the “reform” - in October 2018 - and has a “twin” company, Emsiel Eco-Project LLC. The chairman and founder of the society is Nikolai Gerasimenko. A man with the same name appears in the “Peacemaker” database as a militant of the terrorist organization “DPR”. However, given the prevalence of first and last names, the likelihood that this is the same person is low.

But the figure of the former co-owner of the company, Valentin Shevchenko, is no less interesting. At one time he worked in the notorious State Automobile Inspectorate as director of the Department of Permitting Procedures and was even involved in criminal proceedings since 2019. We are talking about the high-profile case of the former head of the Main Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine Igor Shcherbina (according to insider information, the godfather of the ex-director of the DBR Roman Truba).

In addition, presumably, in 2007-2012, Mr. Shevchenko was an assistant to the People’s Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of the Region Nurulisan Arkalayev, who voted for “dictatorial laws” in January 2014.

NPK Smart Lex Group LLC is headed by Victoria Kovtun. According to YouControl, she is the subject of the declaration, and her husband Dmitry Yora worked in a senior position in the Ministry of Justice in 2015-2020, and in 2023 in open sources he is listed as a signatory in the Ministry of Defense.

It is also interesting that in 2018-2019 Victoria Silenko worked as the financial director of NPK Smart Lex Group LLC. Her preliminary place of work, as noted by our colleagues from Zerkala Nedeli, was the State Tax Inspectorate of the Goloseevsky branch of the State Fiscal Service in Kiev, and one of the next was the supervisory board of Ukrnafta from the company Bordo Management Limited in the orbit of the disgraced oligarch Igor Kolomoisky.

The Scientific Park of the National University of Bioresources and Nature Management of Ukraine “Sustainable Environmental Management and Quality of Life” (abbreviated as NP “SPYAZH”) is headed by Viktor Teslyuk. In turn, NP “SPYAZH” acted as the founder of the National Association of Scientific, Technological Parks and other innovative organizations of Ukraine, the head of which is Viktor Ivchenko - Ex-Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine (2010), former Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Ukrgasbank (2010-2014) ) and Deputy Chairman of the State Agency for Science, Innovation and Informatization of Ukraine.

Ivchenko’s wife is Vera Ulyanchenko, known as the former governor of the Kiev region and ex-chairman of the Secretariat of President Viktor Yushchenko. During Yushchenko's tenure, Ulyanchenko was considered the “trusted secretary” of the head of state.

Did the influential connections of the managers and founders of the players in the ATS market play a role when they received contracts from forestry enterprises? And aren’t there signs of an alleged “conflict of interest” and monopolization of the industry here?

To clarify these points, the editors of StopCor submitted official requests to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine. Now we are waiting for an answer and will definitely cover them in the next series of analytical research.