In the Odesa region, a court halted the renovation of a cultural center worth 39 million

The court declared invalid an agreement to extend the major renovation of the cultural center in the Kuyalnik community, valued at over 39 million hryvnias. The reason was the systematic postponement of work deadlines in the absence of actual funding and legal grounds.

This is stated in the ruling of the Commercial Court of Odesa Oblast.

According to the case file, the contract for the major renovation of the Kuyalnik Cultural and Leisure Center building was signed back in 2019. The contractor was supposed to carry out a major renovation of the facility and install a solar power plant on it. The work was to be funded from the state, regional, and local budgets.

However, starting in 2022, no funds were allocated for the project from the budgets, which led village council officials and the contractor to regularly enter into additional agreements to extend the deadlines for completing the work. The most recent such agreement was intended to extend the contract until the end of 2026.

The prosecutor’s office filed a lawsuit due to the lack of objective and documented grounds for extending the contract. The court agreed with the prosecutors’ arguments and noted that maintaining a contract that is effectively not being performed or funded violates public procurement laws and poses risks to the budget. 

Юлія Калабайда