Defendant in embezzlement case receives state contract for water supply system in Kherson region

The Kherson Regional Infrastructure Restoration Service has ordered additional work to reconstruct the water supply in Posad Pokrovsky. The contract was signed with a company that is involved in criminal proceedings for possible overpricing of work on the water supply system.

This was reported by the Center for Public Investigations.

The reconstruction in Posad Pokrovsky of the Chornobaivka village council in Kherson district includes the construction of pipelines, communication lines and power lines. The expected cost of the works is over UAH 55 million including VAT.

The customer is the Kherson Oblast Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service. The additional works are being ordered from the same contractor as the main contract, based on the Cabinet of Ministers' Resolution No. 1178 of October 12, 2022, which allows procurement without open bidding if additional works to the existing contract are required.

SCREEN SHOT: Prozorro

The winner of the tender was Agro Construction LLC, which offered to perform the works for UAH 55.24 million including VAT. The contract was signed on December 26, 2025, and the reconstruction is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2026.

Scandal with inflated prices

As previously reported by Intent, in early February, the court allowed investigators to seize documents in the case of possible misappropriation of budget funds during the restoration of water supply in Kherson region. According to the investigation, under the contract No. 1-AGRO/23 of November 17, 2023, the company could have overstated the cost of work by almost UAH 189 million.

In particular, Agro Construction allegedly overestimated the price of materials by more than UAH 3.7 million. Some of the work could have been performed without official employment, and the acts of work performed did not always correspond to the actual amount. The pre-trial investigation is ongoing in criminal proceedings initiated on May 22, 2024, over possible abuse of power by officials in the procurement of construction works.

About the contractor

Agro Construction LLC was registered in 2016 in Kyiv, with an authorized capital of UAH 10 thousand. The main activity is engineering, geology, geodesy and technical consulting. The owners are Artur Stasiuk and Denys Pohrebniak. The company has been participating in public procurement since 2017, and the total amount of contracts won exceeds UAH 617 million, most of them in 2021, more than UAH 260 million.

SCREEN SHOT: YouControl

The firm's clients were the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in Kherson and Zakarpattia regions, the Department of Regional Development of the Kyiv Regional State Administration, and the State Customs Service of Ukraine.

Suspicions of embezzlement

According to court materials, the Bukovyna Customs ordered major repairs of asphalt and arrangement of the territory of the Mamalyha international checkpoint. The work was performed by Agro Construction, with a total cost of over UAH 22 million. After the inspection, it turned out that the concrete used was more expensive than the contract stipulated, which caused the state budget to suffer losses of almost UAH 840 thousand.

Kherson Oblast also allocated more than UAH 52 million to restore gas supply to a frontline village. The contract was awarded to a company involved in a case of embezzlement of public funds, and its former owner has already been convicted of separatism.

Анна Літман