The NBU bought a “business program” from a seller who is involved in bribes to banks: he is paid millions annually

The National Bank annually spends more than UAH 5 million on servicing the SAP program to optimize business processes. The NBU purchased the program from the Brig Retail company. Its owner several years ago sold SAP through the Brig-Retail company (with a hyphen in the name) to Ukrainian banks and got into a scandal.

Brig-Retail, as stated in court documents, paid a 15% kickback to the management of Ukrsibbank and inflated the cost of its services. In addition, as a result of an investigation by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, the company was found guilty of conspiracy in tenders for the purchase of SAP. “Brig-Retail” actually ceased its activities, and in its place the company “Brig Retail” appeared, which receives most of its tenders from the NBU. We are talking about tens of millions of hryvnia.

Disclosed correspondence and scandalous purchases: what Brig-retail is known for

The consulting company "Brig-Retail" has been successfully operating in the market since 2006. They sold automated control systems to large companies and banks. Annual revenue amounted to tens of millions of hryvnia. But 2020 was the last year of Brig-Retail’s active work; now the company continues to exist, but, according to Youcontrol, with virtually zero revenue.

The probable reason is that Brig-Retail got into a whole series of scandals. According to the materials of the criminal case 752/12659/18, they conspired with the managers of Ukrsibbank and supplied their goods at inflated prices for a kickback of 10-15%. “Companies that won tenders or contracts to provide services or goods to UkrSibbank pay a kickback of 10 to 15% of the contract amount, as is known, his last acquaintances (friends),” the case file says.

But the problems did not stop there. The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, by its decision No. 661-r, fined Brig-Retail UAH 3.2 million for violations when participating in a tender for the purchase of an SAP software product. The AMCU published the investigation materials on its website. They contain correspondence and conversations between Brig-Retail and their competitors (provided by NABU). It turned out that they went to meetings together and exchanged technical data. The Antimonopoly Committee concluded that their prices at the tender were agreed upon.

“During the removal of information from transport telecommunication networks, conversations of persons were recorded, the content of which confirms the common interests and relationship between trading participants; during the removal of information from instant messengers, hard drives, etc., data was obtained indicating the joint preparation and participation of bidders,” says the materials of case No. 910/3039/22.

According to information that OBOZREVATEL was able to obtain, law enforcement officers are also checking whether a monthly subscription fee for a service that can be dispensed with is not a theft of public funds.

In the conversation, Brig-Retail employees also expressed concern that the National Bank was going to purchase SAP directly (probably, we are talking about SAP Ukraine). And of course, when they have actually already been caught for violations during tenders and have become involved in a bribery case, it would be extremely risky to cooperate with the National Bank.

The owner of Brig Retail, Oleg Pozdnyakov, created a company in 2020 with an almost identical name, Brig Retail (without a hyphen in the name). A company with the same owner and name provides the same services - consulting on automation issues and selling SAP products. But “Brig Retail,” unlike “Brig Retail,” is not on the AMCU blacklist, has not been involved in the kickback case, and supposedly has a “clean reputation.”

Tens of millions from the National Bank: how does the company make money?

The updated “Brig Retail” won tenders for UAH 34.6 million, of which UAH 29.3 million came from the National Bank. For 2023, the NBU has already paid them UAH 5.2 million for SAP support, and for 2022, Brig Retail received UAH 5.9 million from the NBU for the same service. The National Bank liked the company’s services so much that in April 2023 they held a tender with one single participant and paid Brig Retail a six-figure sum for the SAP system also for the mint.

The National Bank not only pays tens of millions of hryvnias to Brig Retail for new products, but also annually pays a subscription fee of more than 5 million hryvnias. And this despite the fact that the company “Brig-Retail” of the same owner has already been caught for violations during tenders and has become a defendant in criminal cases, including due to subscription fees.

The owner of Brig Retail and Brig Retail is Oleg Pozdnyakov. He was not involved in criminal cases and did not get into public scandals. And it was registered in an apartment in one of the typical high-rise buildings in the Solomensky district of the capital. In the near future, OBOZREVATEL will publish information about who Pozdnyakov may be connected with and what other companies are registered to him.

As stated in the court case, Brig-Retail previously paid kickbacks of up to 15% (without a court decision, this is just an assumption by law enforcement officers). If this turns out to be true, the employees of the National Bank could already “earn” about 4.3 million UAH from such a rollback. True, in this case, the NBU budget (and this is public money) would lose many times more: due to inflated prices and the purchase of unnecessary services.