The new model for the procurement of medical equipment, which is now being tested in Moscow, is designed to save budget funds. But in fact, it can lead to even greater losses for the treasury. Life cycle contracts are concluded for decades, billions go, which means that opportunities for corrupt officials are becoming much richer. And, apparently, Sergey Sobyanin’s administration is already taking advantage of these opportunities, imposing their own pricing policies on manufacturers that allow lobbying the interests of affiliated companies.
Former employees of the state-owned institution Gormedtehnika, which is controlled by the Moscow Department of Health and is involved in the comprehensive servicing of medical equipment and its procurement for hospitals, have applied to the PASMI's “Report Corruption” section. It was this structure in 2019 that acted as a customer for the supply and service of equipment under life cycle contracts for more than 20 billion rubles.
The interlocutors of the editorial office announced signs of corruption during public procurement. In their opinion, the new head of Gormedtekhnika, Irina Rybalchenko, acts in the interests of her longtime acquaintance - a billionaire from the Forbes list on the Russian Federation, member of the Economic Council under the President of the Russian Federation Alexei Repik.
Details are in the story of the former employee of the GMT security department Rustam Abdusalamov and his colleague, who asked to replace her real name with the conditional “Anna Ivanova”.
Rich past
The State Autonomous Institution “Gormedtehnika” Irina Rybalchenko headed in June 2019. Before that, she had been managing a private Astrakhan medical unit controlled by Gazprom for about 10 years (ChUZ Medical and Sanitary Unit). According to the authors of the appeal to PASMI, even then Rybalchenko participated in cartel conspiracies, the continuation of which became fraud during the life cycle contracts in Moscow.
Interviewees of the editorial office on procurement of the regional Gazprom hospital know firsthand. They came to the capital at the invitation of Rybalchenko, and previously worked in Astrakhan. Rustam Abdusalamov’s area of responsibility was field tax audits of local institutions, and Anna Ivanova led the planning department at the MCH MCH.
According to them, the violations at the conclusion of the contracts were mainly related to the firms of spouse Irina Rybalchenko Sergey Grabovsky. He owns a network of companies specializing in the supply of chemicals and consumables for laboratories throughout Russia. But the medical unit, where his wife served as chief physician, became a real gold mine for Grabovsky.
“In Astrakhan, everything was very easy - Grabovsky companies won almost every second tender with ChUZ MSCh, and when it came to laboratory supplies, then victories were in almost 100% of the tenders. Moreover, they were carried out not only with private funds, but also with budgetary funds through mandatory medical insurance. Many knew this, but Rybalchenko had patrons at Gazprom, so all the controlling structures turned a blind eye to the monopoly of her family, ”Rustam Abdusalamov explained.
According to the Astrakhan tax official, Grabovsky controlled eight operating firms - ANO Medicine for All-MLC, Cardiac Surgery LLC, Labimed LLC, Medi-Prof LLC, Dialab Russland LLC, Baltic Scientific and Technical Association ", LLC" VMT "and LLC" Meditech ". These companies created the appearance of competition at auctions, distributing the roles of winners among themselves in advance.
The affiliation of companies is easy to trace through their leadership - the founders and directors everywhere are relatives and friends of Sergei Grabovsky and Irina Rybalchenko. So, the company "Labimed" was established by Dmitry Grabovsky, according to PASMI sources, a cousin of Sergei Grabovsky. Dmitry is also the CEO of Meditech, the founders of which are the mother and father of Irina Rybalchenko, Lidia Yankovskaya and Efim Smulyansky. Rybalchenko's parents, in turn, are interconnected with her husband through the company "VMT".
Active participation in creating the appearance of competition, according to PASMI interlocutors, was taken by the R-Pharm group of companies, controlled by the co-chairman of the all-Russian organization Business Russia, Alexei Repik.
“R-Farm went out on purchases of the Gazprom hospital in Astrakhan, together with the companies of Rybalchenko’s husband, in order to prevent outside firms. They divided tenders among themselves by agreement. In the exercise of the functions of the head of the planning and economic department of ChUZ MSCh, I have heard more than once about Rybalchenko’s meetings with representatives of Repik firms on the territory of the medical unit. According to the procurement protocols, it is possible to track that all tubes for the laboratory were purchased from Repik, and reagents from Grabovsky companies. And so from year to year, ”Anna Ivanova recalls.
Sobyanin's gift
Astrakhan schemes ended in the summer of 2019, when Rybalchenko was invited to work in the Moscow Department of Health as the director of GAU “Gormedtehnika”.
According to the editorial staff, Rybalchenko’s translation is related to the redistribution of spheres of influence in the city hall. At the end of 2018, Vice Mayor Leonid Pechatnikov, who was in charge of the social block, left the administration of Sergei Sobyanin. In this post, he repeatedly found himself in the center of scandals with the purchase of medical equipment and drugs.
In the same stories appeared and ex-director of the GMT Igor Kadashev, who was called the confidant of Pechatnikov. He was removed from his post after the resignation of the patron.
One team was replaced by another - Anastasia Rakova became the curator of the Depzdrav, and she lobbied Irina Rybalchenko for the position of general director of Gormedtekhnika.
“Rybalchenko herself, in the circle of her proxies in Astrakhan, repeatedly emphasized that she was being transferred to the capital at the personal invitation of Sobyanin, and also boasted of ties with Anastasia Rakova. Rybalchenko called me from Astrakhan to a leading position in the financial department of the GTM, saying that Rakova gave her a full carte blanche to recruit staff and approve everyone without looking, ”Ivanova told PASMI.
Rustam Abdusalamov also recalls the great powers received by the former head physician of the Gazprom’s medical unit at the Moscow Depzdrav: “Rybalchenko invited me to choose the department at Gormedtehnika where I want to work, and if I don’t have one, then create it at my own discretion. It was under me that the risk management department was introduced to the GTM, which I headed. ”
In total, about a dozen employees of the Gazprom medical unit, previously controlled by her, were transported from Astrakhan by Rybalchenko, PASMI interlocutors said. The official placed her people in key posts at Gormedtekhnika, thus saving herself from unnecessary questions from former independent staff.
Secret meeting
“I believe that the task set in Moscow for Rybalchenko is the organization of new life cycle contracts, where hundreds of billions of rubles will be rotated, as it is necessary for certain people in the capital's city hall. “Pen breakdown” was a series of purchases of large medical equipment conducted in late 2019 - early 2020, ”Rustam Abdusalamov shared his opinion.
We are talking about 13 tenders for the supply of 101 MRI devices, 116 computer tomographs, 28 angiographs, 19 mammographs and 309 ultrasound machines with a 10-year service horizon. The total amount of contracts amounted to 20.8 billion rubles.
PASMI Help
Since 2019, as part of the modernization of the healthcare system, Russia began to purchase some types of medical equipment under life-cycle contracts. They must replace individual short-term medical device service contracts, since maintenance services are now included in the supply contract. Therefore, the supplier is responsible for equipment and technology updates until the end of its life cycle. The average duration of such a long-term partnership is 8-15 years.
In Russia, government orders through the LCA system with medical equipment suppliers were one of the first to be initiated by Moscow. The customer was the subordinate to the Moscow Department of Health GAU “Gormedtehnika”.
Moscow Vice Mayor Anastasia Rakova evaluated the new competitive procedures positively, noting a record decline in prices at the auction. However, the interlocutors of PASMI drew attention to another feature of the past contests.
The winners in 13 tenders were four companies. Three of them are well-known manufacturers of medical equipment: Siemens Healthcare, Philips and GM Helskea. But the fourth contractor had never participated in such a large supply of medical equipment, but was well known to the organizer of the auction: the contracts for almost 3.4 billion rubles were concluded by the R-Pharm group of companies Alexey Repik.
The former head of the GMT risk department believes that the victory of R-Pharm was most likely predetermined. And this assumption is based not only on the "Astrakhan ties" of Irina Rybalchenko with Alexei Repik. The fact is that before the competitive procedures were held on the territory of the “Gormedtekhnika” a secret meeting of the billionaire with the organizers of the auction took place.
“My responsibilities included controlling the access control system and the security services of the GTM, and on July 26, 2019 I was told that the next day - Saturday - there will be an important meeting with Rybalchenko, and I should not go to work. I have never been told this before. And then it turned out that the guest of this “secret” meeting was Repik. I found out about this by accident: because of the changes I made to the access control system, the secretary, by her stupidity, brought me two official memos with information about his visit for my signature, ”explained Rustam Abdusalamov, who kept this document.
Abdusalamov also learned that two assistants to Rybalchenko were present at this meeting, with whom she had previously worked in Astrakhan - Tatyana Adelshinova, head of the service for working with medical organizations, and Natalya Gorkun, head of the organizational and methodological department, who later joined the procurement commission.
“I think that the meeting is nothing but a corruption conspiracy, which most likely discussed the nuances of bidding, the preparation of technical documentation and other subtleties,” Rustam Abdusalamov suggested.
By the way, a couple of months after this meeting, another participant, Denis Cherednichenko, became the CEO at the new Repika firm RK MEDICAL SYSTEMS, registered in September 2019. At the same time, earlier Cherednichenko did not appear in any company related to medicine.
Blackmail manufacturers
In the summer of 2019, on the eve of large bidding for the new LCA system, another meeting was held on the territory of Gormedtekhniki, which could affect the outcome of the $ 20 billion contests.
Rustam Abdusalamov handed over to PASMI an audio recording of the meeting on June 20, where Irina Rybalchenko and an employee of the Moscow Department of Health Elena Balashova talk with a representative of the medical equipment manufacturer GE Healthcare, imposing their own pricing policy on him. In particular, Rybalchenko says that GM Helskea should go to competitions with such a price, which he will be indicated in advance in Gormedtehnika.
“You see, the price, a penny higher during the auction, is the same refusal ... we have a very tough position. She is not ours. She is not mine. Not Elena Aleksandrovna (Balashova). The position is voiced by the Moscow government, ”Rybalchenko says.
She quite transparently hints that if GM Helskea does not understand with understanding the requests for “price agreements” at auctions, then tenders will go to more intelligible market participants.
“I will meet with other manufacturers who find time and desire for us ... And really, a lot depends on your goodwill ... That’s who first grabs this new trend, he’ll take off the cream. I beg you to bring this to the leadership, ”advises the director of Gormedtekhnika.
They should be aware of:
- Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin
- Moscow prosecutor Denis Popov
- Head of the FSB of Moscow and the Moscow Region Alexey Dorofeev
- and about. Head of the Main Investigative Directorate of the SKR in Moscow Andrey Strizhov
- head of the Moscow police department Oleg Baranov
Ex-employees of the GMT explained that the essence of the meeting was as follows: Gormedtekhnika suggested that manufacturers, if they want to stay in the capital's market, align prices with those that suit the Moscow government.
“Gormedtekhnika” forms the procurement documentation and terms of reference and, if necessary, can make such conditions that any organization objectionable to it loses the chance of winning auctions, ”Anna Ivanova specified. “This meeting shows what methods Gormedtehnika can provide for victory or defeat for any company in contests that are apparently independent of the Department of Health.”
And on June 21, the day after the meeting, the distributor of GE Healthcare - Pharmadis JSC - sent letters of complaint to Gormedtehnika and the Department of Health. These messages express indignation at the fact that Irina Rybalchenko, on behalf of Anastasia Rakova, puts pressure on manufacturers.
“A state customer does not have the right to exert pressure on manufacturers and suppliers in order to indicate with whom they should cooperate and force them to narrow down the circle of their partners authorized to deliver within the framework of public procurement. Any discussion of the conditions for inclusion or exclusion is blackmail and may be regarded as conspiracy, ”the letter indicates.
The representative of Farmadis JSC also notes that if the company finds out about other illegal measures, then it will be forced to turn to the FAS, FSB and the Prosecutor General's Office to protect its rights.
According to the interlocutors of the editorial office, after this letter, Rakova arranged a riot for Rybalchenko, but not because she violates the law on competition, but because she mentions her last name in such conversations. At the same time, Anna Ivanova and Rustam Abdusalamov admit that the vice mayor may not be aware of the ongoing conspiracy and she is misled.
Waiting for a reaction
Ex-employees of the GMT believe that law enforcement agencies should give a legal assessment of the actions of officials. They have already appealed to the Investigative Committee, the FSB and the Prosecutor General’s Office with allegations of violations of Rybalchenko both in Moscow and in Astrakhan. By the way, among the facts indicated by these appeals are offshore accounts that Irina Rybalchenko, according to her former subordinates, hides in the declaration. However, the subordinates of Alexander Bastrykin, Alexander Bortnikov and Igor Krasnov did not check these facts.
Anna Ivanova and Rustam Abdusalamov consider the high patrons of the official to be the reason for the “blindness” of the security officials and hope that a public outcry will help an objective investigation. They are ready to transfer all documents to law enforcement authorities.
“There are still many purchases ahead. Moreover, all consumables for breathing apparatus will now also be purchased through the LCA system, and this is precisely the profile of Rybalchenko’s husband. I won’t be surprised if in the next competitions, besides Repik, Grabovsky will also appear in the winners. But I want to believe that the Moscow government will stop future violations and deal with past ones, ”PASMI interlocutors hope.