Special equipment for the State Emergency Service: How two short ladders caused a scandal

The results of the tender for the purchase of special equipment for the Kharkov unit of the State Emergency Service became the subject of discussion, since instead of one long fire escape, two short ones appeared. There was nothing left in the tender for Sumy colleagues, since the funds were redistributed for the centralized purchase of tank trucks from a company associated with the former official. According to the State Audit Service of Ukraine, service providers spent more than UAH 200 million on aerial ladders.

What is happening with State Emergency Service and who is blocking the work of frontline firefighters in Kharkov and Sumy? More details about this can be found in  Artem Rebrov’s investigation for StopCor.

According to a journalistic investigation into questionable purchases from the State Emergency Service, StopKor sent a number of relevant statements to the competent authorities. The State Audit Service was one of the first to react: auditors conducted an inspection and identified a number of violations that caused damage to the state.

So, in May of this year, the State Emergency Service unit in the Kharkov region applied to the service’s head office with a request for permission to purchase a fire truck ladder from 45 to 55 meters. The choice of characteristics of the procurement object is determined by the specifics of a city with a population of one million: there are many residential high-rises in Kharkov. The largest number of 16-story buildings is in Northern Saltovka, located less than 30 km from the Russian border, so this particular suburb regularly suffers from fires as a result of rocket attacks and shelling.

However, for some reason the officials decided to provide two short stepladders here instead of one of the required length. So rescuing people from the upper floors is still a “quest” for firefighters.

Sumy region were even less lucky . They also asked to be allowed to purchase aerial ladders 35 and 45 meters long. But these purchases were canceled, because, according to the instructions of the Ministry of Economy, represented by Yulia Sviridenko , and the decision of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, one large centralized tender was held - for the purchase of tank trucks.

“As a result of the audit, the auditors found out: this tender was registered specifically for the Pozhmashina . In order for this company to get the biggest jackpot - UAH 1.4 billion, the purchase was divided into two lots. Exactly these machines were purchased a year ago, auditors compared prices: the state was “heated” by almost 300 million hryvnia on this purchase ,” notes Artem Rebrov.

In general, according to a memorandum from the State Audit Service addressed to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Igor Klimenko , which fell into the hands of the StopCor editors, the suppliers of the State Emergency Service probably made more than 226 million UAH during the purchase of aerial ladders for various departments.