The Kharkov Regional State Administration was afraid to disclose the price of wire for fortifications, but disclosed the exact address of the manufacturer.
First, the general trend. We are seeing a decrease in the pace of orders for fortification structures. If since the beginning of February reports in Prozorro have been published at an average speed of 3 billion per week, then over the past week only 1.63 billion were published. This indicates the exhaustion of financial resources for the construction of protective structures. Since the authorities, just a few months ago, did not at all foresee the possibility of urgently digging into the ground, at least along the active front line. And when they realized that they urgently needed to build concrete structures, no one knew exactly how much would be needed. Therefore, sufficient financial resources were not planned.
According to Our Money, manufacturers of concrete structures also face certain restrictions. Not all of them were preparing for defense orders. Because the state almost didn’t make any invasions for two years. Here are the numbers for understanding. Since the beginning of February, Prozorro has published reports on the construction of fortifications worth UAH 22.84 billion. Whereas for the entire 2023, fortification orders amounted to only UAH 0.64 billion.
Consequently, not all, or rather few, factories had certified capabilities to meet the extremely strict requirements of the General Staff for construction materials. For violation of which the State Audit Service is always ready to punish for the slightest deviation. Now they are seeking understanding with the military regarding the nature of precisely these requirements, and there is a chance for a certain reduction, which will not lead to a deterioration in the quality of defensive structures. This will allow more factories to take part in preparing the country for the imminent advance of the Nazis. And then provide the military with concrete in general, and prevent prices from soaring significantly due to an artificial shortage of manufacturers’ capacity
For these contracts, estimates are not made public, so it is impossible to compare the prices of building materials with market prices.
At the same time, some customers hide prices in those orders where only goods are purchased.
The Kharkov regional administration ordered wire products worth almost UAH 90 million. The purchase was carried out without using an electronic system, because this wire is needed for defensive structures and is very urgent - before May 1. Therefore, there is no possibility of carrying out lengthy tender procedures. It is also logical when in defense procurement the customer hides classified information.
However, in this case, the regional administration left absolutely open information about the exact address of the plant from which the wire was ordered. But she hid information about which wire was ordered and the price per unit. That is, it is precisely the information that may contain data on the corruption component that is closed. And precisely the information that can tell the enemy where to fire missiles has been revealed.
We deliberately do not provide here a link to this tender and a screenshot with the unretouched address of the manufacturer. Although we understand that the enemy himself monitors “Prozorro”, and he has much more resources for this than “Our Pennies”. However, we do not want accusations that we reminded the Russians of the place for a missile strike. Therefore, we publish only this screen as a demonstration of the “strange” actions of individual customers.
Additional reasons for bad thoughts are added by the fact that other customers publish prices per unit of goods in absolutely similar situations.
For example, on the same days, the Donetsk Regional State Administration published its report on the purchase of a spiral wire barrier of the “Egoza” type. Here, too, a considerable amount of 39 million UAH, also very fast delivery times. But in this case, the customer in the contract retouched the exact address of the trading company with which he entered into an agreement. And without any problems he published data about the product itself and the price per unit.
And everyone can compare the price of Egoza with other purchases.
For example, one of the military units of the Chernihiv region ordered Egozas and putkas for UAH 677 million. Here, a barrier line Ø1100 mm for 7 staples with galvanized staples and tape with a density of 140 grams per m2 was ordered at UAH 5,145 per 20-meter coil, including VAT. That is, the price of one meter is 250 UAH:
And at the Donetsk Regional State Administration, the price for a 25-meter bay almost the same “Egoza” (galvanized with a density of 200 grams per m2) was 9,504 UAH. That is, at the level of 380 hryvnia per linear meter, including VAT and delivery to the front-line zone:
Since the terms of payment in both contracts are the same (90 days upon acceptance), the difference in the Donetsk price of 380 UAH and the Chernigov price of 250 UAH can only have three explanations - the difference in galvanization, the cost of delivery from the manufacturer, and the level of the intermediary’s margin in the Donetsk contract.
In any case, this difference became known due to the fact that customers published unit prices. And they didn’t retouch it out of sight, giving rise to suspicion out of the blue.
