The state Agency For Retrieving and Managing Stolen Assets, or ARMA, held a press conference on Jan. 25, declaring that the tender for choosing the company which will manage Mezhyhirya, the former palatial estate of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, will be delayed until Feb. 28.
The reason is public dissatisfaction with the way the tender was planned and due to the lack of interest from the business community, according to Anton Yanchuk, head of ARMA.
On the press conference, Yanchuk was supposed to announce the company which will manage Mezhyhirya, the 140-hectare luxury residence of Yanukovych. However, on Jan. 24, an association of investigative journalists commonly known as “Yanukovych Leaks,” issued an open letter citing the lack of transparency during the process of choosing the company that would manage the high-profile object.
“The tender was already extended twice, while receiving high media attention,” said Yanchuk. “However, even with (the object having) huge public resonance, we saw little interest from business to manage this object.”
According to Yanchuk, only two entities participated in the tender, even though the bidding process was open for a record-breaking 51 days. Atlant Develop LLC, a company registered in Bila Tserkva, a city of 90 kilometers south of Kyiv, with the authorized capital of Hr 1,000 ($35) and the nonprofit organization Mezhyhirya, which is currently managing the auctioned property.
Yanchuk pointed out, that according to the Civil Code of Ukraine, a nonprofit organization is not a business entity, thus legally banned from taking part in the tender, leaving Atlant Develop LLC as the only contender.
Denys Tarakhkotelyk, a former EuroMaidan Revolution activist and the head of the nonprofit organization Mezhyhirya, told the Kyiv Post that the whole procedure is wrong. According to him, ARMA is looking from a business perspective, yet there is little to no interest to manage this asset.
According to Tarakhkotelyk, the object should be transformed into a state-owned museum. While answering the question whether the organization will comply with the law according to which to take part in the tender the organization will have to change its status, Tarakhkotelyk stated that the organization will remain as a non-business entity.
