Scandal with school meals in Mykolaiv exposes contractor's ties to authorities

A Mykolaiv-based company at the center of a scandal over delays in the supply of school meals and violations of sanitary standards is likely to have ties to local officials.

This was reported by Nikcenter.

The official owner of the company used to work in catering establishments associated with the family of the head of the Ingul district administration and city council member Hanna Remennikova. In addition, legal support for the company was probably provided by the head of the legal department of the same administration.

Prosecco 8 LLC received a contract to provide catering services for some schools in Mykolaiv until the end of December 2025. The municipal enterprise responsible for organizing school meals signed a contract with the company worth about UAH 14.2 million.

However, on the first day of the contractor' s work, there was a public outcry. Parents reported that their children were left without breakfast or received their meals late. The media also published a video of the company's employees cooking porridge for schoolchildren in the rain in a tent.

The mayor's office and the company explained the situation as technical problems and a lack of staff. However, during the press conference, it became known that before signing the contract, the utility company only checked the company's documents, without assessing its real production capabilities.

Prosekko 8, formerly known as Vipbauer, was founded in 2023 by Serhii Markin, a resident of Mykolaiv. He owns more than a hundred companies, most of which are inactive or change owners over time.

In Mykolaiv , Markin massively creates and re-registers companies, including one-day firms that can be used for dubious financial transactions. Two such companies were later transferred to beneficiaries associated with former MP Borys Kozyr and exported agricultural products worth more than UAH 1 billion during the full-scale war.

Mykolaiv developer Mykhailo Zhendubaev also used his services, purchasing a company from him with no activity and receiving a state contract for it worth UAH 15 million a month later.

In March 2024, the company was re-registered to Iryna Stoyeva, a resident of Mykolaiv. Two months later, the company won an auction to lease an administrative building owned by the city council.

Stoyeva, the company's director and owner, was listed as the contact person at the auction. At the same time, this contact number belongs to Anastasia Korzhenko, head of the legal support department of the Ingul district administration. This number appears in the lawyer's profiles with signatures linking her to the district administration and Prosecco LLC. The Ingul district administration is headed by Hanna Remennikova, who is linked to the owner of the contractor company.

The register of court decisions also contains a 2023 decision to bring Iryna Stoyeva to administrative responsibility for violating the rules of payments in the field of trade and catering. In the document, she is listed as the manager of BBV 2021 LLC, headed by Borys Birestnev, the son of the head of the Ingul district administration.

In addition, the food for the schoolchildren was prepared on the territory of a restaurant associated with Remennikova's family. The owner of the company explained this by renting the premises.

Following the publicity, Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych ordered the early termination of the contract with the company. Law enforcement officers opened a criminal investigation into the possible misappropriation of property through abuse of office and violation of sanitary standards.

Since the beginning of the new school year in Mykolaiv, more than four thousand schoolchildren have stopped using free meals. This happened after a scandal over parental complaints about the quality and organization of meals, particularly at the Mykola Arkas Lyceum.

Анна Бальчінос