Chornomorsk Lyceum Shelter Tender Raises Concerns Over Material Costs

An agreement was signed in Chornomorsk, Odesa Oblast, to build a shelter for Lyceum No. 3, but the tender raised questions about the cost of materials. The winner was Premiumstandardbud Construction Firm LLC with a contract worth UAH 97.8 million. A competitor who offered a lower price was rejected due to non-compliance with the requirements.

According to the Dozorro monitoring portal, the funds will be used to build a shelter for 333 people at 10-A Parkova Street in Chornomorsk. It will consist of two parts: the main building and a diesel power plant. A children's playground will be located above the protective structure.

Dozorro's experts found significant overpricing of construction materials, which could lead to an overpayment of UAH 10.2 million, which is 10% of the contract amount. For example, hot-rolled reinforcing steel is listed in the estimate at UAH 51,000-58,604 per ton, while the market price of this material from different suppliers ranges from UAH 30,515 to 38,390 per ton. Thus, the overpayment for this product alone could reach UAH 4 million. In addition, the contractor will supply concrete mix B25 [M350] at a price of UAH 5,280 per cubic meter, which is significantly higher than the offers of other companies, where this material costs from UAH 2,980 to UAH 3,340 per cubic meter.

The experts sent a request to the customer with calculations and a request to reconsider the prices for construction materials. However, a week later, they received a response that the contract price was confirmed by the project and the expert evaluation and was not subject to change.

On February 10, the State Audit Service began monitoring the procurement. It is worth noting that this procedure is the second attempt to conduct the procurement, as in September 2023, a similar tender was announced with an initial expected value of UAH 79 million. At that time, the proposal of High-Rise Construction Holding was rejected due to non-compliance with the technical requirements.

The development of the project documentation was carried out by individual entrepreneur Kyrylo Tsygankov for UAH 1.1 million, and its adjustment was carried out by individual entrepreneur Valentyn Yevdokymenko for UAH 80 thousand.

Premiumstandardbud Construction Firm LLC was founded in 2019 and is owned by Andrii Hlazkov, a resident of Odesa. The company started participating in public procurement only in the fall of 2023 and has already received contracts worth UAH 203 million.

Ірина Глухова