Moscow City Hall awarded illegal
contracts worth more than 4 billion rubles ($66.7 million) as part of
the capital’s flagship renovation program, Russia’s Anti-Monopoly
Service (FAS) has ruled.
An audit found that companies were
awarded illegal government tenders to the sum of 4 billion 98 million
rubles, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported.
The contracts involved improvements to
Moscow’s central Tverskaya Ulitsa in 2016, as well as improvements to
the city’s sidewalks.
The FAS investigation found that
tenders were not being evaluated fairly, that bids were being accepted
after government deadlines, and that officials were receiving illegal
financial guarantees from contractors’ banks.
Experts told Kommersant that officials
were unable to revoke the contracts as the work has already been
completed.
“The contracts cannot be revoked or
declared void by a court,” lawyer Natalya Pantyukhina told the
outlet. “The only way to recover damages due to poorly executed
work is through the court, or by asking the customer to cover
materials such as concrete slabs under a warranty period.”