The Kyiv City State Administration has spent 40 million on dubious environmental monitoring systems

Congratulations, dear like-minded people! We continue the chronicles of Kyiv kleptomaniacs. And today we will talk about environmental monitoring.

On August 6, 2020, the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Kyiv City State Administration signed an agreement for UAH 39.74 million with the company Envimonitor LLC to create — attention! — hardware and software complex for collecting and processing data on the state of the environment.

This complex will consist of two points. The first (number 4) will be located on Decembrists Street, 1. And its cost with services is UAH 20.58 million. And the second — at number 8 — will be on Kaunaska Street, 12, and its cost with services will make 15,67 million UAH. And these two points will, I recall, collect, analyze and process environmental monitoring data.

You ask: why is it so expensive? And I’ll tell you: that’s all! The data of all these devices must also be properly calibrated. And the manufacturers of these devices are «ENVItech» (Slovakia), «Ecotech» (Australia), «Horiba» (Japan), «FAI Instruments» (Italy), «Gasera» (Finland), «Chromatotec» (France) and «Vaisala »(Finland). Therefore, their calibration alone will cost UAH 2.15 million.

And, by the way, the State Audit Office is already checking the procurement from 2018, where the winner of this tender was awarded more than 2 million hryvnias for monitoring and monitoring of the state of the environment. And there not only the ecologist, but also the devil will break a leg.

And I will add that the Department of Information Technologies announced last year that the Kyiv Smart City program has already launched an environmental monitoring system! However, the site, which is designed for this purpose, has not been working since January this year.

And it’s surprising. We spend millions of dollars to monitor the environment, buy super-equipment from foreign manufacturers, and by and large, we do not understand what results we will get from this super-equipment, which is already calibrated by our companies for millions of hryvnias.

First of all, I am interested in the expediency of installing a new system of software and hardware data collection, if there is already such a system in Kyiv, for which money has been spent, but it does not work.

Secondly, why implement such a data collection system when there are cheaper and more tested systems?

Thirdly, it is interesting: how many such software and hardware systems of data collection and processing are needed in Kyiv in general? And where can we see the data they collect and process?

And most importantly: are these systems, which cost tens of millions of hryvnias, certified in accordance with the current legislation of Ukraine?

This is, of course, great when it is possible to monitor what is happening to the environment. But do we have real levers of influence on those structures and organizations that pollute the air? And will we be able to clearly understand the source of pollution with the help of these software and hardware systems and those companies that supply, install, certify, calibrate them?

In my opinion, this is an example of typical kleptomania. When behind good proposals — and we remember where the road leading to good intentions leads — hides the theft of the budget.

There should be no unnecessary barriers in the capital. And such power is enough to shake.