Reconstruction of a berth for 539 million in Odesa port fails

Odesa has canceled a tender for the reconstruction of berth 7 of the seaport worth more than UAH 539 million. The auction did not take place because no company submitted an offer.

This is evidenced by data from the Prozorro procurement system.

In August, the Odesa branch of the State Enterprise "Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority" (USPA) announced an open tender for the reconstruction of berth 7 in the Odesa seaport. The expected value of the procurement was over UAH 539 million. The client planned to complete the reconstruction by December 31, 2027. According to the technical documentation, the reconstruction involved a large-scale set of works.

SCREENSHOT: Prozorro

However, at the stage of accepting proposals, the tender caused a stir among potential participants. One of the appeals concerned the requirement to provide a valid Certificate of Recognition of a Procurement Procedure Participant issued by the Shipping Register of Ukraine or another qualifying company. Potential contractors noted that it takes at least a month to obtain this document, which effectively limits access to bidding.

In addition, companies complained about the requirement to confirm their experience in performing works on the construction of railways with consequence class CC3. Participants emphasized that there are already restrictions on the award of similar contracts due to the inability to confirm experience under contracts executed in the ports that are currently temporarily occupied - Kerch, Berdiansk, Mariupol, Yevpatoria and Feodosia.

In such circumstances, the additional requirement of the CC3 consequence class, in their opinion, further narrowed the range of potential bidders, as many companies have experience only at CC2 facilities, which could also be considered relevant for seaports.

Participants also drew attention to the disproportionality of the requirements: For example, contractors were required to have proven experience in railroad track construction, but not in dredging, although such work was part of the project.

In response, the USPA stated that all requirements were set to confirm the qualifications and technical capacity of the participants, so it refused to change the conditions.

The deadline for submitting bids was September 9, 2025, but no company submitted an application. As a result, the tender was canceled due to the lack of bids, and the reconstruction of berth 7 is currently without a contractor.

In August, the port of Odesa signed a contract for the thermal modernization of the motor depot worth more than UAH 22 million, although some materials on the market are half the price. The cheaper competitor was rejected due to formal errors in the documents, so the possible overpayment could reach more than UAH 1.5 million.

Анна Бальчінос