Mykolaiv Region's South Ukrainian NPP Faces Corruption Allegations Over ₴36.6M Contracts

In the Mykolaiv region, multimillion-dollar contracts from the South Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant, including for the supply of household appliances under the guise of special equipment, were awarded without open bidding. Despite criminal cases and suspicions of price gouging, investigations have effectively stopped, and information on most contracts remains unavailable.

According to an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Dimension, at the end of 2022, Mykolaiv law enforcement officers opened proceedings over possible misappropriation of budget funds in the procurement of equipment for the South Ukrainian NPP.

As it turned out, back in 2020, the plant's management signed an agreement for more than UAH 36.6 million without open bidding. It is impossible to find data on this contract in Prozorro. The supplier of the equipment was the Kyiv-based TSM Group corporation, which is associated with a diplomat from President Petro Poroshenko's time. Interestingly, this company has repeatedly received government contracts without competition. Instead of special equipment for a nuclear power plant, it supplied refrigerators, kettles, TVs, microwaves, office equipment, and even stationery.

Law enforcement officers found serious discrepancies between the estimate and the actual deliveries, which were probably overpriced. Preliminary estimates suggest a possible embezzlement of 390 thousand hryvnias. In total, the company received more than 5.5 million under this agreement.

The contract with TSM Group was justified by the fact that classified data was allegedly used in the implementation process. However, no classified information was provided to the contractor. It is still unknown why an open tender was not held.

This is not the only case of cooperation between the NPP and the company. In 2016, the SBU opened a case over another contract with TSM Group for firefighting works worth UAH 12.5 million. It is suspected that the company, through a subcontractor, overpriced the equipment by almost 4 million.

Another contract in 2017 was for 33 million hryvnias, and another in 2018 for 12.6 million hryvnias. All these agreements were also concluded without tenders. Some of them were classified, allegedly because of security issues, but this practice makes it impossible to control the spending of public funds.

According to the investigation, the video recorders purchased for the PAES could have been purchased with an overpayment of 12 million. They were supplied by a company founded by a person with the same name as the current head of TSM Group. In total, the company received contracts worth UAH 28 million.

As for the connections, one of the company's beneficiaries has a common property with Pavlo Domashnev, who used to be an advisor in the Presidential Administration. After 2020, he disappeared from the civil service, and at the same stage, the company stopped receiving official contracts.

It is not yet known at what stage the investigation is and whether TSM Group has been paid all the money. There is no information about the transactions on the spending portal. At the same time, the analysis shows that the scale of possible abuses is much larger, and the proceedings are up in the air.

In February, a court in Mykolaiv region extended the duties of a company director suspected of embezzling funds allocated for the repair of the South Ukrainian NPP facility. The company's actual expenses were significantly lower than the declared ones, and the difference was transferred to the company's bank accounts.

Last year, the High Anti-Corruption Court scheduled a hearing on the misappropriation of UAH 12.3 million in the case of the executives of the South Ukrainian NPP, where inflated prices were set for the purchase of equipment. They are also accused of similar actions in another case related to the nuclear power plant.

Анна Бальчінос