State Audit Service Investigates Corrupt Schemes with Odessa’s Water Supply System
State Audit Service unexpectedly returned to a case from a decade ago, investigating corrupt schemes with Odessa’s water supply system.
In a new report, the agency describes in detail how in 2003, when Ruslan Bodelan was the mayor of the city, the Odessa City Council effectively leased the municipal water utility to a private company for a nominal fee. This involved transferring the entire property complex of the communal enterprise «Odessa Water Supply» for 49 years to the private LLC «Infoks».
«This contract included not only real estate and engineering networks, but also a long-standing customer base and current assets. Thus, the Odessa City Council leased not only a communal enterprise, but also a strategically important sector for the city,» the report says.
After Eduard Gurvitz took office as the mayor, the city administration began capital repairs of the water supply network using credit funds from the budget. The identified violations highlight serious problems in the management of Odessa’s communal economy, which have been ongoing for many years.
