The new publishing house has received state orders for almost UAH 180 million and will print textbooks at inflated prices? The Ministry of education and science reacted

In the Ukrainian market of educational literature, a new publishing house "Atlant" appeared, which literally in a matter of months received from the Ministry of education more than 100 orders for the release of school textbooks with a total cost of almost 180 million UAH. as indicated in the investigation NGL.media, the publishing house probably inflated prices for textbooks, and the profit of Atlanta from several months of cooperation with the State "Institute for modernization of educational content" may reach 100-120 million UAH. The Ministry of education and science has already responded to the material and  initiated an internal investigation into the purchase, reports UNN.

Details

In the last two months alone, the State Scientific Institution of the Ministry of Education "Institute for modernization of educational content" has signed 83 agreements for the publication of textbooks with Atlant Publishing House LLC. These agreements totaling almost UAH 163 million were concluded directly during June-July, without announcing tenders.

All these textbooks are intended for schools with the languages of instruction of national minorities (Polish, Hungarian, Romanian), as well as for students with special educational needs.

A typical example is the agreement concluded on June 27  worth UAH 5.4 million for the publication of almost 12 thousand textbooks "health, safety and well-being" for sixth-graders with special educational needs.

The agreement includes terms of reference and planned calculation, which describes all expenses and profits of the publishing house. as expected, the largest item of expenditure is printing services – UAH 4.8 million. Another UAH 370 thousand is provided for general expenses and royalties to authors. The profitability of all stages of production, according to the calculation, does not exceed 5% and is less than 260 thousand UAH. thus, one textbook from "Atlanta" will cost taxpayers 455 UAH.

To find out the justification for such costs for NGL printing services.media appealed to several Ukrainian printing houses with a request to provide calculations of the cost of their textbook printing services according to the same terms of reference (circulation, volume, paper density, color, etc.).

As a result, it turned out that the cost of printing services in the calculation of "Atlanta" is overestimated at least twice.

However, the most interesting was the price offer of the Kharkiv Printing House LLC "pet", where the publishing house "Atlant"prints its textbooks. It was this printing house that released all the textbooks under last year's agreements between Atlanta and the Institute for modernization of educational content.

Received from NGL.media terms of reference with similar indicators, pet LLC expressed its readiness to print 12 thousand textbooks within a month for 871.2 thousand UAH. this is almost five times cheaper than the 4.8 million UAH pledged by Atlant.

If we take into account the additional costs, fees and profitability laid down by Atlant, the cost of one textbook paid for by budget funds could be 109 UAH, and not 455 UAH.

The agreement for the publication of the textbook "health, safety and welfare" for schoolchildren with special educational needs is just one of 83 agreements that the Institute for modernization of educational content concluded with Atlant Publishing House LLC during June and July 2024. The total cost of these transactions is almost UAH 163 million. taking into account 21 more completed transactions concluded in December last year, the total cost of Budget orders received by Atlant is UAH 178 million.

It is difficult to determine specific overpayments for all these transactions, because for comparison, you would have to calculate hundreds of calculations for textbooks of different print runs and volumes for several printing houses. However, there are several publishing market experts who are NGL.media was asked to analyze the ten largest transactions, claiming that it is obvious that the cost of printing services is overestimated by two to three times.

"Of course, it would be worth analyzing each of these transactions in detail, but after reviewing the technical tasks and planned calculations you sent, I can confidently say that the cost is overestimated by two or three times, and sometimes even more. This is obvious to anyone in our market," NGL said.media technical director of one of the Ukrainian publishing houses and , which also uses the services of pet LLC.  

Based on such estimates, Atlanta's profit from several months of cooperation with the State Institute for modernization of educational content can reach UAH 100-120 million.

Lelya Minakova, director of Atlant Publishing House LLC, actually declined to comment on the overestimation of the cost of producing the textbook "health, safety and well-being", insisting in a written response  NGL.media that "there is no such fact".

But the director of the state scientific institution "Institute for modernization of educational content" Evgeny Bazhenkov in answers to the NGL request.media said that its organization does not influence the choice of printing house. "Publishing houses, including Atlant Publishing House LLC, independently determine the printing company that is able to fulfill the state order for printing a textbook within a certain period of time on the terms of publishing houses, "he says.

Add

Atlant publishing house, which so quickly broke into the market of educational literature, was founded less than a year ago in Kiev. However, its founders and owners are three businessmen who have long and very successfully mastered this market – Viktor Kruglov, Oleg Furman and Oleg Kostenko. 

Viktor Kruglov is the owner of the Publishing Group "Osnova"and the publishing house"Ranok". Osnova annually publishes more than 200 new titles of educational, reference and educational books, and Ranok is a traditional supplier of textbooks for the Ministry of Education. For example, in 2021, Ranok received UAH 121 million for textbooks, taking first place in terms of the total cost of contracts from the Ministry of Education. The second place (UAH 82 million) in this rating was awarded to the publishing house "Genesis", which is owned by Oleg Furman, and the third place (UAH 81 million) went to the publishing Center "ORION" by Oleg Kostenko. For several years in a row, these three publishers received more than half of all the money that the government allocates for the publication of school textbooks.

Ranok and Geneza continue to lead in 2024, having already received more than UAH 190 million and UAH 170 million from the Ministry of Education, respectively, but Atlant took the third place with a portfolio of orders for UAH 163 million received in just two months.

Formally, Kruglov, Furman and Kostenko are competitors in the market of educational literature. However, this did not prevent them from combining their interests in a new business project, which in less than a year has already received 104 agreements worth UAH 178 million from the Ministry of Education.

The newly created Atlant publishing house was headed by Lelya Minakova, former deputy chairman of the board of the state holding "Ukrvidavpoligrafiya" –  the largest publishing and printing company in Ukraine, which oversees the work of 23 specialized enterprises.

Currently, Atlant received contracts only for textbooks for schoolchildren with special educational needs and languages of instruction of national minorities.

As for foreign-language textbooks, Atlant enters into translation and adaptation contracts with publishers that own the copyright to the Ukrainian version. An analysis of textbooks already published by Atlant showed that it entered into such agreements with the publishers of its owners – "Ranok" and "Genesis".

With textbooks for students with special educational needs, the situation is somewhat different. Such textbooks are prepared by the author's team and submitted to the Competition by the State "Institute for modernization of educational content", which in as a result of selection recommends them for publication at public expense. Such textbooks receive the corresponding stamp of the Ministry of Education. The authors, meanwhile, register the copyright for the textbook, and the Atlant publishing house enters into agreements with them for its use. Such agreements allow you to obtain state contracts.

Position of the Ministry of education and Science

The Ministry of education and science of Ukraine announced that it is initiating an internal investigation into the purchase by the Institute for modernization of educational content of textbooks for children with PLO at an inflated price.

"... we received information that the Institute for modernization of educational content, which is authorized to organize the examination and purchase of textbooks, has signed an agreement for their purchase at an inflated cost.

The Institute for modernization of educational content is a separate legal entity that organizes competitions and purchases textbooks and manuals for schools," the statement reads.

The ministry noted that they strictly adhere to anti-corruption principles, so they are grateful to the media representatives for paying attention to possible violations.

"We will definitely inform you about the results of the internal investigation," the Ministry of education and science summed up.