Auditors find violations in a 600-million tender in Mykolaiv

The auditors checked the tender for the 600-million-dollar reconstruction of the Mykolaiv Regional Children's Clinical Hospital. A participant in the procedure was unreasonably disqualified for allegedly failing to provide the necessary information on the technical and quality characteristics of the procurement.

This is evidenced by the data of the Prozorro procurement system.

According to the protocol of consideration of tender proposals dated April 11, 2025, the client stated that the participant did not provide a separate document with details on the prices of materials - name, quantity, transportation costs, warehouse costs and country of origin of goods. However, as the company assured, all the necessary information was contained in the tender offer files in the IMD format, which is part of the tender documentation requirements.

In response to the company's appeal, the procuring entity denied the request, citing the need to place the information in two separate documents - which, according to the bidder, was not clearly provided for in the tender documents. The State Audit Service of Ukraine began monitoring this procurement, finding irregularities in the procedure for disclosing and evaluating tender proposals.

Screenshot: Prozorro

The monitoring was conducted for the procurement of reconstruction works at a children's hospital. The SASU requested explanations from the contracting authority regarding the justification of budget allocations, technical characteristics of the procurement item and sources of funding. The procuring entity provided documents confirming the allocation of a subvention from the state budget for investment projects in healthcare, but did not confirm the funding through the Ukraine Facility.

The hospital reconstruction project was divided into four phases, and it was planned to raise UAH 167 million for its implementation. Bidding for the fourth stage of construction was announced in March.

The auction was held on April 11 with the participation of two companies - Riola-Module LTD and Antares-BUD. Despite the fact that the former offered a lower price, the latter won, reducing the cost by UAH 18.4 million and awaiting the final decision on signing the contract. By the way, this company has repeatedly appeared in journalistic and criminal investigations.

Currently, Riola-Module LTD plans to appeal to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) with a request to cancel the disqualification and reconsider the procuring entity's decision.

Анна Літман