No Surprise: Odesa Determines the Breadwinner for the Military for 21 Million

The municipal institution Odesa Regional Special Medical Supply Base has held a tender to select a company that will provide four meals a day for sick patients and military personnel.

This is reported in the electronic procurement system Prozorro.

It is about 37 thousand sets of meals for patients, which means four meals a day for one person, and 40 thousand sets of four meals a day for military personnel.

The only bidder and candidate for UAH 21 million 13 thousand was Fabrika Smaku, a limited liability company. The company expects to conclude a contract and the cost of services is equal to the expected procurement value. The tender was conducted in the format of open bidding with special conditions.

Open bidding with special conditions means that almost all terms are shorter than those of open bidding in accordance with the Law on Public Procurement. This means that this procurement is much faster than open tenders.

The period for submitting proposals is seven calendar days, and the period for challenging qualifications is five calendar days. Often, there is no auction during such tenders, so the participant has no competitors.

However, after the start of the full-scale invasion, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine temporarily changed the rules for bidding for the period of martial law in Ukraine and within 90 days from the date of its termination or cancellation. Thus, the government temporarily canceled electronic auctions. Since then, tenders announced in Prozorro can be held without an auction.

For example, the Odesa Children's Orphanage chose Fabrika Smaku Limited Liability Company to provide catering services for its children from January 1, 2025, to December 31, 2025. The procurement was held on December 27 in the format of an open tender with special features, and Fabrika Smaku was the only participant without competitors.

According to the YouControl service, Fabrika Smaku LLC was registered in 2015. The owners are Ihor Levinzon and Olha Boholyubova, and the owner and director of the private enterprise Ratsiy Group is Maksym Yatsenko.

Earlier, the Centers for Financing and Economic Activity and Educational Institutions of Peresypskyi and Kyivskyi districts of Odesa conducted procurement to select companies that will be paid to organize school meals.

In September 2022, the Center for Public Investigations analyzed the composition of companies participating in tenders for the right to feed schoolchildren in Odesa and identified the main players in this market in Odesa. The experts identified Fabrika Smaku LLC as one of the leaders.

Кирило Бойко