British-owned firm wins medical tender in Odesa without auction

The municipal institution Odesa Regional Special Medical Supply Base conducted a procurement to select a company to be paid for the supply of laboratory reagents.

This was reported by the Center forPublic Investigations with reference to the Prozorro electronic procurement system.

It is about 53 items of medical reagents. The procurement was conducted in the format of open bidding with special features and its only participant was KhLR Limited Liability Company. According to the YouContorl service, the company was registered in Kyiv in 2019 and its owner, according to the YouControl service, is a citizen of the United Kingdom, Ronald Rainer.

This is not the first time the company has won medical tenders in Odesa without an auction. In April 2025, the Odesa Regional Special Medical Supply Base Municipal Institution conducted a procurement for the purchase of medicines. The agreement was concluded with ZLR LLC for the amount of UAH 30 million 994.9 thousand.

In March, the institution entered into an agreement with HLR LLC for the supply of medicines. The amount to be received by the company under that agreement was UAH 12 million 734.2 thousand. The procurement was also conducted in the format of open bidding with special features.

In 2024, KhLR LLC received UAH 556 million 460.4 thousand through public procurement, and since the beginning of 2025 - UAH 352 million 174.9 thousand.

In 2026, the company won government tenders totaling UAH 862 million 906.3 thousand. The company's tenders include a total of 1.5 thousand lots.

Open bidding with special features means that almost all terms are shorter than in open bidding under the Law on Public Procurement. This means that this procurement is much faster than open tenders.

The period for submitting proposals is seven calendar days, and the period for challenging qualifications is five calendar days. Often, there is no auction during such tenders, so the participant has no competitors.

However, after the full-scale invasion, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine temporarily changed the rules of bidding for the period of martial law in Ukraine and within 90 days from the date of its termination or cancellation. Thus, the government temporarily canceled electronic auctions. Since then, tenders announced in Prozorro can be held without an auction.

Кирило Бойко