While the government discusses a possible promotion for the head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration Ivan Fedorov, new budget spending is appearing in the region that raises questions. The state enterprise "Local Roads of Zaporizhzhia Region" has announced a procurement for designing two underground shelters for transformers at one of the 150 kV substations. The tender details are classified: the specific substation is not named, and the contracts for the work have not been published. All that is known is that each design costs almost UAH 1.5 million, which may mean further construction worth at least UAH 16 million. The design will be done by the Zaporizhzhia company "Nastroi". We have already written here about Fedorov's multimillion schemes with the state enterprise "City Roads of Zaporizhzhia Region".
The key question is whose transformers exactly the budget money will be spent on. The grids and substations in the region belong to the energy company Zaporizhzhiaoblenergo, the electricity distribution system operator in the region. The company is among the ten largest power distribution companies in Ukraine, serves hundreds of thousands of consumers and more than 23,000 businesses, and owns tens of thousands of kilometres of power lines. The controlling stake - more than 60% of the shares - is state-owned through structures of the Ministry of Energy.
This is why the question arises: why should facilities that are in fact the infrastructure of an energy company be maintained at budget expense through structures of the regional administration? This is strange, to say the least. All the more so because one of the protective sarcophagi for a transformer on the right bank of Zaporizhzhia was already built by Zaporizhzhiaoblenergo itself with its own money. The new initiative, by contrast, involves building underground shelters with state money - and it is impossible to check whether they are needed or what they really cost, because the tenders are closed.
The background of this story raises even more questions. The energy company has repeatedly featured in high-profile corruption investigations: law enforcement reported that former managers of Zaporizhzhiaoblenergo caused the company losses of more than UAH 730 million through schemes involving tariffs for supplying electricity to industrial consumers.
Against the background of Ivan Fedorov's possible promotion to the government, society should understand what management decisions are made by officials who run regions during a full-scale war. And are defensive energy infrastructure projects turning into yet another scheme for absorbing budget money? This should not be happening!