Firms close to Moscow officials participated in the tender

Press Release, 9.10.2020

The Anti-Corruption Policy Centre of the Yabloko Party has identified signs of cartel conspiracy in procurement for construction and major repairs in Moscow. The investigation was launched after residents of the Khamovniki district filed complaints about the quality of the repairs of their housing. Moscow officials – deputy head of the Basmanny District Administration Sergei Salnikov and head of the Capital Construction Directorate Alexei Butusov – are involve in the purchases with signs of price collusion.

The Anti-Corruption Policy Centre found out that six companies from Kursk and Kazan received more than 8.7 billion roubles in three years at the tenders of state purchases for major repairs of houses and landscaping in courtyards in Moscow. The companies operated in two groups: one divided a billion of budget money, the other – eight billion. They share the same phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and the founders and directors are closely related.

The key participants of the first group are the firms Force, Fagot and Sten. Alexei Gortikov, the son of a former regional deputy and builder from Kursk, is behind the firms. Sergey Salnikov, Deputy Director of the Sten firml, has been working as deputy head of the Basmanny District Council since 2019. There he supervises construction works. The Fagot firm, associated with Salnikov, earns on the contracts in the Basmanny district from the state-owned company providing utility services in the district.

Three more companies are associated with Alexei Butusov, Director of the Moscow state public insitution Capital Construction Directorate. All of them come from Kursk and were classmates at the university.

“Cartels are parasites on the economy and often serve the interests of the officials behind them. With the help of power resources, public servants promote their businesses to the detriment of people’s interests. The root of the problem is that decisions are adopted in one centre, and competition is perceived as a threat that nothing will be done at all. It is necessary not only to toughen punishments for cartels, punish specific officials with fines and dismissals, but also to transfer more powers to deputies of different levels, ” Alexei Karnaukhov, head of the Anti-Corruption Policy Centre, said.

Alexei Karnaukhov, head of the Anti-Corruption Policy Centre and a deputy of the Khamovniki district in Moscow, submitted an application to the Federal Antimonopoly Service with information about the signs of collusion. He also demanded to investigate the conflict of interests of Salnikov and Butusov, and dismiss them for the loss of confidence.