Police launch investigation into possible collusion between village council officials and coal suppliers

The Kyiv District Court of Odesa allowed investigators to access items and documents related to the purchase of coal by the Department of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports of the Petropavlivka Village Council of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi District, Odesa Region.

Investigators believe that officials systematically conducted procurement with discriminatory requirements and purchased coal at inflated prices in 2024-2025, the Anticorruption Dimension publication reported, citing a court order.

In particular, law enforcement officers concluded that the contractor was supplying coal of DG grades at a cost of UAH 11-12 thousand per ton, while the average market price in Odesa region is UAH 9-10 thousand per ton. At the same time, according to available information, the ash content of the coal supplied by the contractor does not comply with the DSTU, which can reduce the cost of such coal to UAH 6,500 per ton. So the prices could be almost twice as high.

So far, the investigation has indicated that the contractor has been operating since 2022 and requested access, among other things, to the contract No. 1 of January 23, 2025. The ruling states that the subject of the contract is the supply of goods "Coal of G (G2) grade (13-100), Coal briquette".

Such a contract is available on the ProZorro procurement portal and the supplier was indeed registered in 2022. Therefore, journalists assumed that this was a procurement made by the Department of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports of the Petropavlivka Village Council of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi District of Odesa Oblast.

The supplier in this procurement is Beimil Active LLC. According to the YouControl analytical platform, the company was registered on September 16, 2022. Its director and owner is Serhii Kabanov from Odesa.

In total, the Department of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports of the Petropavlivka Village Council of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi District of Odesa Region purchased more than UAH 7 million worth of coal from this supplier and became one of the largest customers. Only the Centralized Procurement Organization of the Odesa Oblast Council purchased more.

Кирило Бойко