The state lost more than a billion in budget funds in two state tenders for Ukrgazvydobuvannya JSC, which were carried out by Viktor Pinchuk's Interpipe. Energy expert Yuriy Korolchuk wrote about this on his Facebook page . He is talking about tenders for the purchase of 21T-220 and 21T-216 pipe products.
"In September 2021, Interpipe won the tender No. 21T-220 (Prozorro number UA-2021-09-14-007828-b) for the supply of pipes to Ukrgasvydobuvannya for UAH 2.5 billion without real competition. The pipe deliveries were disrupted, but Interpipe did not pay a penny of compensation to Ukrgasvydobuvannya. I don't think Pinchuk's company was allowed to violate the contract for nothing. "Interpipe apologized to Ukrgasvydobuvannya very much and cited force majeure. After that, Ukrgasvydobuvannya was no longer interested in receiving a penalty and fine of UAH 455 million from Interpipe. They did not even file a lawsuit," writes Yuriy Korolchuk.
The expert also notes that as a result of Interpipe's failure to fulfill its obligations on time, Ukrgasvydobuvannya did not raise the issue of collecting a bank guarantee, which is a common practice with other contractors.
"In addition, the management of Ukrgasvydobuvannya decided not to demand from the bank the funds for bank guarantees in the amount of 5% of the value of the goods under the contracts, which is UAH 114.7 million," Korolchuk points out.
The expert gives an example of a similar situation that arose when Interpipe was contracted to supply casing for Ukrburgaz, a subsidiary of Ukrgasvydobuvannya.
"Ukrburgaz has signed two contracts with Interpipe for the supply of casing pipes worth UAH 1.835 billion. We are talking about tender 21T-216 (Prozorro number UA-2021-09-09-007417-c). The terms of supply were even better there, but Pinchuk's company also broke the contract. However, in this case, Ukrburgaz did not even file a complaint with Interpipe. No one took the money under the bank guarantees either. In total, Ukrburgaz officials caused losses to the state in the amount of UAH 450 million," says Korolchuk.
According to the expert, it is in Interpipe's interests to cancel and announce tenders in which Ukrgasvydobuvannya JSC sets non-competitive terms for the execution of contracts.
"In order to prevent competition, tenders in which Interpipe cannot win are canceled and new ones are announced, setting delivery terms that are unrealistic for any company that manufactures and delivers pipes to Ukraine.
For example, we can examine the recently announced procurement procedures for casing pipes with a diameter of 244 mm (Prozorro numbers UA-2024-01-18-012700-a, UA-2024-01-18-015851-a, UA-2024-01-18-014403-a, UA-2024-01-18-015376-a). These tenders set "draconian" terms for the manufacture and delivery of goods of 90 and 120 days from the date of conclusion of the contracts," the expert writes.
According to media reports, the NABU is investigating a criminal investigation into the purchase of Interpipe pipes by Ukrnafta at inflated prices. Last week, NABU conducted searches at the company's office.