Odesa terminates 6-million-dollar agreement with provider of military lyceum students

The Center for Financing and Economic Activities of Educational Institutions of Khadzhybeyskyi District of Odesa has terminated the agreement with the company that organizes meals for children in the Odesa Lyceum with enhanced military and physical training.

This was reported by the Southern Office of the State Audit Service.

As explained by the auditors, they insisted on terminating the agreement because, according to an additional agreement to the contract, its essential terms were unreasonably changed, namely: instead of five meals a day for children in the period from January to May 2026, two meals a day were provided.

"Upon completion of the monitoring and the violations identified during it, the Southern Office of the State Audit Service obliged the Customer to take measures to eliminate these violations by terminating its obligations under the contract. In the electronic procurement system, the Procuring Entity published information that the parties decided to terminate the contract based on the conclusion of the Southern Office of the State Audit Service on the results of the monitoring," the Southern Office said.

According to the Prozorro system, the procurement was held on December 25, 2025, in the format of an open tender with special features, and the only participant was Fabrika Smaku Limited Liability Company. The company was to receive UAH 6 million 696.7 thousand under the contract.

According to the YouControl service, Fabryka Smaku LLC was registered in 2015 with an authorized capital of UAH 1 thousand. The company is owned by Ihor Levinson and Dmytro Nikitin. Since 2016, the company has received more than UAH 2.6 billion in public food procurement and has long been the main supplier of food for hospitals, schools, police, and military units in Odesa.

At the end of December 2025, Odesa held tenders for catering in general secondary education institutions for 2026. The total value of the procurement exceeds UAH 354 million.

The largest amount of money is planned for Prymorskyi district - over UAH 103.6 million, Kyivskyi district - over UAH 104.7 million, Khadzhybeyskyi district - over UAH 73.7 million, and Peresypskyi district - over UAH 72 million.

Only one company, Fabryka Smaku LLC, applied for the tenders in Prymorskyi and Peresypskyi districts worth over UAH 175 million, and it won. A similar situation occurred in Kyiv and Khadzhibey districts, where the only bidder and winner was Ration Group PE.

In September 2022, the Center for Public Investigations analyzed the companies that participated in tenders for the catering of Odesa schoolchildren and identified the key players in this market. Experts ranked Fabryka Smaku LLC as the leader, while Ration Group PE was ranked in the second group of suppliers with fewer tenders won.

Кирило Бойко