A year and a half ago, our journalists launched an investigation into the mismanagement and nepotism in the energy sector of Belarus. It was followed by the desire of some officials mentioned in the investigation to defend their “undeservedly” tarnished reputation.
Belkotelochistka, a company affiliated with Belenergo, filed a lawsuit against our journalist Stanislau Ivashkevich in the Economic Court. During the four-month trial, many interesting facts surfaced. The head of the company, Valyantsina Zimenka, demanded that 11 quotations from the investigation were refuted and she was paid 6,000 rubles in compensation for damage to business reputation.
The court ruled to deny monetary compensation to Belkotelochistka.
On the contrary: according to the verdict, this company is to pay Ivashkevich certain amount of money.
Of the 11 quotes that Belkotelochistka wanted to be refuted, the court ordered Ivashkevich to refute only 3. Those that mentioned the word “corruption”.
This word, according to Belarusian legislation, can be mentioned only with reference to a court decision or that of some law enforcement agency.
An individual or a journalist cannot draw such conclusions, whatever the evidence.
But Belsat was able to prove in court a systemic scheming with signs of corruption, which covers the entire energy sector. In particular, the fact that the authorities gave to several selected private firms the control over some branches of the domestic energy infrastructure service.
Also, with the help of research in social networks, private connections of Belkoteleochistka with state functionaries Belenergo were found.
But all our past investigations did not give an answer to the main question: where is the money from all these schemes going ? After all, in exchange for exclusive status in Belenergo, private monopolists are obliged to work with profitability of no more than 10%. So how and where do they hide their super-profits from revenues that are several times higher than the prices of their competitors for similar work? You can find out about this in our next program (video above).
