Beryslav City Council Purchases 500 Drones for ₴7.5M Without Tender

The Beryslav City Council in Kherson Oblast has purchased FPV drones worth UAH 7.5 million bypassing Prozorro.

According to the Center for Public Investigations, the announcement of the agreement was published on the public procurement website.

The purchase was made without using Prozorro by the executive committee of the Beryslav City Council. Recently, they signed a contract for 500 GEPRC MARK4 LR8 FPV drones with a 6S2P battery. The purchase price is UAH 7 million 575 thousand. That is, one drone costs 15 thousand 150 hryvnias. The company has until March 20 to deliver the drones.

The executive committee explained its decision not to hold a tender by the war, the urgent need and the fact that this is a defense procurement. They also reported that the money for the purchase of the drones came as a subvention from the Novokakhovka City Council.

According to the data, FPV-Drone LLC was registered by Petro Kozak, a resident of Kyiv, a year ago. The company's main activity is non-specialized wholesale trade. They can also sell electronic and telecommunications equipment, parts for it, and other machinery and equipment.

During this time, the company has tendered UAH 32.2 million in public procurement. Of this, they received UAH 21.5 million from the Beryslav City Council for drones. Another 10.7 million hryvnias were received from the Chornobaivka village council for 700 Geprc Mark 4 drones.

Earlier, the executive committee of the Beryslav City Council signed an agreement with a newcomer to purchase 100 drones for UAH 2.6 million without a tender. Under the terms of the contract, FPV-Drone LLC was to supply the city council with 100 10-inch KOZAK-10T FPV drones by December 21. That is, the cost of one drone is 26 thousand hryvnias. At the same time, this type of drone could be purchased on the market for 25 thousand hryvnias.

Prior to that, the executive committee of the Beryslav City Council signed an agreement for the purchase of Mavic for UAH 8.7 million with a company that has been on the market for less than a year. However, all documents related to the procurement are classified. By the way, in the procurement of Kozak drones, the documents are also restricted. This time, however, only the contract and the justification for the procurement are available. The executive committee promises to open them 90 days after the end of the war.

Олеся Ланцман