Kherson City Council Contracts Worth ₴8M Invalidated for Bid Collusion

Prior to the full-scale invasion, one of the departments of the Kherson City Council signed three contracts with a commercial entity totaling UAH 8 million.

According to the Kherson Regional Prosecutor's Office, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine found that the winning bidder had colluded with another bidder and grossly violated the principles of fair competition.

"These anticompetitive actions led to a distortion of the bidding results and the conclusion of contracts that are contrary to the interests of the state and society," the agency said in a statement.

Since the violations were intentional and came from a commercial entity, the funds received under these illegal contracts must be returned to the budget. Taking into account the revealed violations, the prosecutor's office appealed to the court to declare the contracts invalid and return UAH 8 million to the state budget. The Economic Court of Odesa Region has already opened the relevant proceedings.

Earlier, the State Bureau of Investigation completed an investigation into the former director of the Department for Civil Protection and Defense of the Kherson Regional State Administration. The official is accused of purchasing low-quality clothing for military personnel, which caused the state losses of more than UAH 21 million.

In addition, the administrative board of the Southern Interregional Territorial Department of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine established the existence of collusion between individual entrepreneur A.P. Kabak and individual entrepreneur I.M. Nesterenko during their preparation and participation in the procurement of hardwood firewood, which was conducted in 2018 by the Kherson Housing and Maintenance Department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. The expected value of the procurement procedure was UAH 4 million 200 thousand. The AMC imposed a fine of UAH 68 thousand on each of the individual entrepreneurs.

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