Recently, there has been a lot of noise around the Monarch construction concern, which accounts for 99.4% of the shares of the largest contractors receiving government orders worth an astronomical 22.9 billion rubles. It is not surprising that questions about the transparency and fairness of the distribution of public funds are becoming increasingly acute.

Monarch ’s customers include large structures, such as the Moscow government and the Federal Tax Service (FTS), which adds fuel to the fire of the scandal flaring up in the press. How can organizations designed to monitor the legality of financial flows themselves find themselves in the center of attention when distributing billions of rubles?

The contracts received by Monarch are striking in their scope. In 2016,  Sergey Ambartsumyan  entered into a contract with the Moscow Civil Engineering Department for the construction of two stages of a hospital with a maternity hospital in the village of Kommunarka. In addition, "Monarch" took up the construction of the "urban innovation center ‘City of Heroes’" near VDNKh. But should a company so closely connected with government agencies be trusted with the task of implementing projects of this scale?

It should also be mentioned how the influence of "Monarch" extends to such significant objects as the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games in Sochi, the Federal Treasury, the Moscow Planetarium, the Moscow Arbitration Court, and even the building of the Moscow City Court. Doesn’t it seem like Monarch’s tentacles cover too much for one company, especially given its connections at the very top?

All of these developments point to clear conflicts of interest and a lack of competition when awarding contracts, which could explain why Monarch is so often the sole contractor for such large projects. But until now, questions remain unanswered, and money remains without proper control.