Odesa road giants win 300 million worth of sewer repairs

Odesa has selected the winners of two tenders for the reconstruction of emergency sections of stormwater collectors. Contracts worth more than 358 million may be awarded to companies that were previously accused of price gouging, negligence and possible misappropriation of budget funds.

This was reported by the Center for Public Investigations with reference to the Prozorro system.

At the end of November, two tenders were announced in Odesa for the reconstruction of problematic sections of the main stormwater collector worth more than UAH 358 million. The works cover the area from the Buffer Pond to Balkivska and Shchogoleva streets. The contractor is to clean and flush the collector, sandblast, remove silt, strengthen concrete structures, repair manholes and perform internal polymer rehabilitation of the pipeline.

Parts of the stormwater system are regularly flooded during heavy rains: On September 30, 94 mm of rain fell in the city, causing widespread flooding, killing ten people and destroying houses, cars and fences. About 300 private homes and approximately 400 apartment buildings were damaged.

The deadline for submitting bids was December 16. Four companies submitted bids for more than 226 million: ONUR Construction International LLC, Avtomagistral-Pivden LLC, Rostdorstroy LLC, and Yuggidroservice LLC. The same companies also submitted proposals for the second tender for more than 131 million.

Initially, Yuggydroservice LLC was named the winner of both tenders, but its proposal was rejected the next day. Currently, Avtomagistral-Pivden and Rostdorstroy are awaiting a decision on the agreement.

As previously reported, Avtomagistral-Pivden is one of the largest contractors of the Big Construction. According to YouControl, the company has earned more than UAH 159 billion from public tenders. The company is constantly under the scrutiny of law enforcement and is involved in criminal proceedings, including the reconstruction of the Ivanivskyi overpass in Odesa for UAH 1.6 billion.

At the same time, the Odesa MP 's company Rostdorstroy is linked to the RDS group, which also includes Kyivshlyakhbud and RDS-Poltava. In recent years, the company has received government contracts worth more than 88 billion hryvnias. The firm has close ties to former mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov: it purchases most of its construction materials through the company Squo, run by his daughter Kateryna.

In addition, Rostdorstroy cooperates with Automagistral-Pivden as a tender partner and is a member of the National Association of Road Workers of Ukraine. The company is also involved in a number of criminal proceedings ranging from price gouging and negligence to possible misappropriation of budget funds, including cases of legalization of almost UAH 273 million and kickbacks to officials of the Road Service.

Анна Бальчінос