The prosecutor's office has taken an interest in an electricity supply agreement with a company owned by a district council member

Prosecutors from the Peresypsk District Prosecutor’s Office have filed an indictment with the court against the former director of a municipal agency responsible for funding educational institutions.

According to the press service of the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office, the official is accused of abuse of office, which resulted in serious consequences.

According to the investigation, in 2024, a tender was held for the procurement of electricity for educational institutions in the Peresyp District. Following the tender, the municipal agency and a company entered into a supply contract. The contract covered the supply of electricity worth nearly 20 million hryvnias.

At the same time, the contract and the law provide for the possibility of adjusting the cost of electricity depending on market price fluctuations. It was established that from January to June 2024, the head of the municipal institution, having full knowledge of the decrease in the cost of electricity, intentionally failed to take measures to revise the prices and bring them in line with market levels.

As a result, for six months, the municipal utility paid for electricity at a price higher than the market rate and unjustifiably transferred excess budget funds to the company’s account. Subsequently, she entered into additional agreements with the supplier to change the price and continued to incorrectly apply the contractually stipulated pricing formula, which again led to an unjustified increase in the cost of electricity. The defendant’s unlawful actions caused nearly 1.4 million hryvnias in damages to the local community.

According to the Prozorro e-procurement system, a contract matching the purchase price, the contracting authority, and the time period was concluded on January 1, 2024, by the municipal institution "Center for Financing and Economic Activities of Educational Institutions in the Peresypsky District of Odesa" with the limited liability company "Energy Operator" for 19 million 620 thousand hryvnias.

According to the YouControl service, “Energy Operator” LLC was registered in 2019. The current owners areAik Poghosyan and Artur Khachatryan. The latter is a member of the Odesa District Council and the nephew of Knyaz Khachatryan, a member of the Odesa Regional Council.  

The company has also come under scrutiny by the prosecutor’s office. In February 2023, the Odesa Regional Commercial Court initiated proceedings based on a lawsuit filed by the deputy head of the Malynovskyi District Prosecutor’s Office in Odesa against “Energy Operator” LLC. The prosecutor acted on behalf of the Odesa Regional Council, the Southern Office of the State Audit Service, the Odesa Regional State Administration, and the “Kryzhinka” Specialized Children’s and Youth School of the Olympic Reserve for Figure Skating.  He requested that five additional agreements concluded between “Kryzhinka” and “Energy Operator” LLC be declared invalid. 

Кирило Бойко