In Vinnytsia, firms with criminal backgrounds are engaged in arranging shelters - media outlet

In Vinnytsia, firms with criminal backgrounds are engaged in arranging shelters - media outlet

Kyiv  •  UNN

November 20 2023, 01:14 PM • 4251 views

In Vinnytsia, shelters were built by companies involved in criminal proceedings. Tenders for repairs and construction were not competitive.

In Vinnytsia, companies involved in criminal proceedings have been contracted to repair and build shelters. Two companies received contracts worth almost UAH 205 million from the Vinnytsia city authorities. This was reported by the local edition "20 Minutes", UNN writes.

Tenders without tenders

This year, 240 tenders have already been year, 240 tenders for the repair and construction of shelters have already been held. The total expected cost was 550 million hryvnias. Contracts have been signed for 397 million.

At At the same time, it is noted that 93% of the tenders that took place were held in a non-competitive manner. The total amount of these contracts amounted to 106 million hryvnias. In 98% of the procurements, there was only one participant, who was then appointed as the general contractor.

In According to experts, this indicates non-transparency of procurement procedures and does not does not lead to cost savings.

"The lack of competition at the bidding may indicate non-transparency of the procurement and and the inaccessibility of business to public procurement. By the way, auditors are now are now monitoring procurement of shelters. The second question to procuring entities is is why they chose this particular contractor. And often customers cannot give answer to this question. And most importantly, the lack of competition equals minimal or even zero budget savings," a representative of Dozorro in Vinnytsia Dozorro representative in Vinnytsia region Yulia Hryha.

The trail of of contractors: suspicions of embezzlement and misappropriation of property

Contracts worth almost UAH 122 million were awarded by Vinnytsia authorities to BK STAM. Among them are two of the most expensive objects: a shelter at lyceum No. 12 (UAH 57.2 million) and lyceum No. 13 (UAH 49.3 million)

It is noted that in 2020, "BC STAM" was suspected of embezzlement of budget funds during during the reconstruction of the maternity ward of the Sharhorod Central District Hospital in 2017. and during the overhaul of the Zeleni Wells" hydrological reserve in 2019.

In the second place in terms of the amount of contracts for shelters in Vinnytsia is the company "ZhK-Garant" - 82.9 million hryvnias.

As according to 20 Minutes journalists, this company in 2021 was one of 40 of the 40 defendants in the criminal case under the article "Misappropriation of property on a particularly large scale or by an organized group". At that time, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv allowed the investigators to request information from ZhK-Garant about financial and economic relations with other companies.

Also, according to the newspaper, "ZhK-Garant" is involved in a case of embezzlement of funds on the repair of a shelter for one of the hospitals in Vinnytsia.

"According to to the investigation, employees of "ZhK-Garant" colluded with officials of the Department of Capital Construction Department of the City Council to embezzle budget funds for the overhaul of the shelter for the City Clinical Hospital No. 1. The verdict in this case has not yet been issued," writes "20 Minutes."