Gas supply contract in frontline village of Kherson region awarded to defendant in embezzlement case

Kherson region has allocated another 52 million hryvnias to restore gas supply in a frontline village. The contract was awarded to a company involved in criminal proceedings for misappropriation of public funds, and its former owner was convicted of separatism.

The details of the company's history were investigated by the Center for Public Investigations.

In late November, the Service for Infrastructure Restoration and Development in Kherson Oblast announced a new procurement for the reconstruction of gas networks in Posad Pokrovsky. The amount of work is UAH 52.6 million.

The procurement was conducted under a non-competitive procedure, explaining that it was an additional scope of work under the existing contract. The law allows such agreements to be concluded with the same contractor for three years if the cost of additional work does not exceed half of the original amount.

The contract was awarded to the private enterprise Engineering and Production Center Vector. The main contract for the reconstruction was signed in April 2024 - then the company won the tender for more than 108 million, offering the lowest price.

SCREENSHOT: Prozorro

The company has existed since 2010 and has changed its address, management, and activities several times. Its current owner is Oleksandr Kryvoruchko, and among the entities associated with the company are a number of firms that have been involved in decisions of the Antimonopoly Committee on concerted actions.

According to media reports, the company was previously owned by Ihor Cherkashyn, who is connected to Donetsk and Kramatorsk companies that lead to a former assistant to a Party of Regions deputy. Some of the equipment is leased from Hozkhimservis LLC, which was registered in the name of members of the Kizimenko family. The head of this family, Oleh Kizimenko, a former deputy governor of occupied Sevastopol, was sentenced by a Ukrainian court to 5 years for separatism, but suspended.

The company has already received about 1.4 billion hryvnias from public procurement. Despite the fact that the company appeared in public procurement back in 2018, it began to receive significant government contracts only in 2023. In 2024 alone, in the midst of a full-scale war, its contracts amounted to more than 998 million.

SCREENSHOT: YouControl

Over the years, Ukrnafta, Ukrtransnafta, the Ukrainian GTS Operator, Ukrgasvydobuvannya, the Service for Infrastructure Restoration and Development in Kherson Region, and other entities have been customers.

Additional attention is drawn to the fact that Vector is involved in a criminal case on the withdrawal of Ukrgasvydobuvannya's funds through a network of controlled companies with signs of fictitiousness. The court has recently seized property seized during the searches, but the progress of the investigation is still unknown.

Thus, another 52.6 million hryvnias to restore gas supply in Posad Pokrovsky - for a total of more than 160 million - is being allocated to a company that is subject to criminal proceedings for misappropriation of funds, and is linked to companies with family ties between the founders and the former owner, who was convicted of separatism.

In addition, the construction of a school shelter worth more than UAH 20 million was ordered in Vysokopillya, Kherson region, without an auction. In total, hundreds of millions have already been spent on the construction of the shelter in this school, which went to companies previously accused of embezzlement and associated with the deputy head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration.

The Center for PublicInvestigations decided to find out which company received this contract and why the contract was awarded without an auction.

Анна Бальчінос