Is the Grinkevich case not an isolated episode? As it turned out, some Ukrainian entrepreneurs are not shy about making a fortune by supplying low-quality goods to the Ministry of Defense, also at inflated prices.
Thus, the company of the family of Sumy region exhumerator Nikolai Lavrik, having won the next tender, plans to “shoe” the Ministry of Defense for another half a billion hryvnia. Although the media and the military have repeatedly reproached this structure for low-quality materials, and the portal talked about a probable “scheme” for the manufacture of products in Bangladesh.
So far, several facts have become known that may confirm the probable corruption scheme.
Military expenditures increased significantly with the start of the full-scale invasion. Thus, in 2022, the budget for providing the Ukrainian army reached 600 billion hryvnia, and already in 2023 this amount increased to 900 billion hryvnia. UAH It should be noted that since February 2022, information on procurement for the Armed Forces has become closed.
And so, recently, Ukraine has been rocked by a wave of ever-new scandals related to defense procurement - from the scandalous purchase of “eggs” to the resonant case of the Grinkevich family, which are gaining more and more momentum every day.
For example, after the announcement of the charges, all family members felt the consequences of their actions, and the youngest son of the family, who, despite his loud statements, tried to escape, Roman Grinkevich, was put on the wanted list and eventually, on January 22, was detained when trying to cross the border.
Due to the fact that most corruption cases are currently gaining greater publicity, law enforcement officers continue to identify other related cases in which the military was “heated up” for billions of hryvnia in the supply of various types of ammunition (helmets, helmets, etc.).
Previously, the “egg” scandal also caused a stir. But, probably, businessmen can make money on other items of supplies for the army.
Thus, the attention of the StopCor editors has already been attracted by countless tenders with the role of the company “TALAN”, which practically monopolized the market of footwear for the military. Analysts discovered that the company belongs to the family of the ex-governor of Sumy region Nikolai Lavrik, and orders materials from Bangladesh, where it has its own shoe factory.
Let us add that in Bangladesh itself there is a factory that produces raw materials for making shoes, owned by the Lavrik family. This fact was confirmed even by representatives of the TALAN company itself. It is from this country that the TALAN group of companies exports the upper part of footwear for the production of ankle boots for the Ukrainian military.
It should also be noted that the Talan group of companies includes Talanlegprom LLC and Talanprom LLC, through which shoes are supplied to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
After the release of our resonant analytical material, “TALAN” continued to single-handedly participate in tenders of the Ministry of Defense. In particular, he became the only participant and, accordingly, the winner of the auction in the purchase of more than half a billion hryvnia, announced before the New Year - according to its results, he should provide the military with summer shoes. On January 11, a message about the intention to conclude an agreement was officially released.
It is interesting that it was the son of the ex-governor, Andrei Lavrik, who was the owner of Talanlegprom, which became the winner of the auction.
And all this despite the fact that back in 2017, the Antimonopoly Committee fined TALAN for tender collusion.
How do representatives of the monopoly company itself comment on all this?
StopCor talked with Andrey Lavrik about the monopolization of the military footwear market in Ukraine. He spoke about the shoe factory in Bangladesh and the quality of the shoes.
It is open information that we also have a shoe factory in Bangladesh. It has been operating since 2008. Its management employs five Ukrainians. From there we get semi-finished products, the blanks are sewn there. Finishing operations are carried out in Ukraine. We provide reporting within the framework of current legislation. We also have a factory in the United Arab Emirates. Someone goes there on vacation, and we make shoes there,” notes the group’s founder.
When asked about the tender, Andrey explained that at a round table at the Ministry of Defense with the participation of Ukrainian manufacturers, defenders set a number of conditions for improving footwear for the military. According to him, technologically for this it was necessary to order special expensive molds, the cost of which is 5-7 thousand dollars per unit. At the same time, they had to be tested and the best were selected among them.
That is, according to him, some of the molds would most likely be rejected based on the research results. What manufacturers who intended to participate in tenders did not want to incur potentially unrecoverable costs. Thus, manufacturers allegedly automatically dropped out of participation in tenders.
So, summing up the above information, I would like to raise an important question. Considering the high-profile procurement scandals of the Ministry of Defense, perhaps the competent authorities and the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine should take a closer look at shoe tenders? After all, considerable sums are spent on this, and on the Internet you can find many complaints from military personnel about the quality of combat boots and other specialized footwear.
