Court terminates billion-dollar deal on reconstruction of Ivanivskyi overpass in Odesa

The Economic Court of Odesa Region has ruled to terminate the agreement on the reconstruction of the Ivanivskyi overpass, which was concluded between the Road Department of the Odesa City Council and Avtomagistral-Pivden Limited Liability Company.

According to the court ruling, the reconstruction is worth UAH 1 billion 609 million.

The court noted that at the time of the disputed agreement, the budget of the Odesa City Territorial Community did not provide for the allocation of funds for the reconstruction of the Ivanivskyi overpass in 2022-2023, and therefore the financing of the work on the said facility was unreasonable and inconsistent with the requirements of the Budget Code of Ukraine.

Thus, the open bidding was conducted by the Road Construction Department of Odesa City Council in the absence of a budget allocation. Despite having the powers vested by the legislator to protect the interests of the state and being aware of the identified violations of the law, the Odesa City Council did not take measures to eliminate violations of the law and the interests of the state committed during the procurement and conclusion of the contract for the procurement of works for public funds.

In June 2024, the Economic Court of Odesa Region upheld the claim of the Malynovska Prosecutor's Office regarding the results of the tender for the selection of a contractor for the reconstruction of the Ivanivskyi overpass in Odesa.

According to the YouControl service, the owners of Avtomagistral-Pivden LLC until September 2022 were Valeriy Korotkov and Oleg Nalyvanyi from Odesa. Currently, the ultimate beneficiary is Oleksandr Boyko, a resident of Odesa region.

On December 30, the Road Department of the Odesa City Council announced a tender to select a company that will be paid for the reconstruction of the Ivanivskyi overpass. The auction with an expected purchase price of UAH 1 billion 629 million 129.3 thousand is to be held on March 15, 2022. The construction length of the section is 2,490 meters. The winning company has until December 31, 2023 to complete the work.

It should be noted that Deputy Mayor Mykhailo Kuchuk said during a staff meeting on December 13, 2021, that the bidding would be international and last 2.5 months.

Earlier it was reported that the project of the new Ivanivskyi Bridge envisages the extension of the overpass towards Ovidiopolska Road and the arrangement of a ring traffic under it.

At the beginning of 2021, during the inspection of the Ivanivskyi overpass, it was found that the operational condition of the bridge was classified as "inoperable". The Ivanivskyi overpass is in a state of emergency. The results of the inspection were announced by Deputy Mayor Dmitry Zheman. The bridge is over 55 years old.

Nine million hryvnias were allocated from the Odesa city budget for the design and estimate documentation by the council members.

Кирило Бойко