Ukraine's top official for Euro 2012 denies improper contracting

Jan 18, 2011, 10:34 GMT

Kiev - The top official for Ukraine's preparations to host the Euro 2012 football championship on Tuesday denied hundreds of millions of dollars of construction contracts to overhaul the country's biggest stadium had been awarded improperly.

'I am not, and will not be, neither directly nor through relatives, a stakeholder in companies that perform contract work for Euro 2012,' said Borys Kolesnykov, in a statement to the Ukrainska Pravda news website.

'Not even (in a company) that delivers balls to the stadium,' said Kolesnykov, head of the National Agency for Euro 2012.

Kolesnykov's statement came in response to an investigative article published by Ukrainska Pravda, one of Ukraine's top independent news sources, identifying three companies allegedly closely linked to Kolesnykov as the recipients some 407 million dollars of contracts to overhaul Kiev's Olympic Stadium.

The contracts were awarded without bidding, and their cost to the taxpayer could rise to as much as 600 million dollars before the stadium is complete, according to the report.

All three firms are 'within the orbit of companies' controlled by Kolesnykov, according to the report.

Kolesnykov confirmed to a Ukrainska Pravda reporter some of his former business associates were involved in the Olympic Stadium reconstruction projects, but said their success in building a high-class stadium in the city Donetsk was the reason Ukraine's government awarded them Olympic Stadium contract.

Ukraine has struggled in its efforts to prepare to co-host the Euro 2012 championship along with Poland.

Kiev's Olympic Stadium, site of the planned tournament final, has been the source of continuing headaches with its reconstruction repeatedly delayed because of disputes over land rights, contracting companies, and stadium design.

The final cost of the venue is being widely predicted in Ukraine's media at well above a half billion dollars.

Government critics in the cash-strapped former Soviet republic have suggested the government money would be better spent on pensions, teachers' salaries, and the national health system.

Kolesnykov is one of Ukraine's wealthiest industrial magnates, and a close ally of President Viktor Yanukovych.

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