From 15 to 45 million: the most expensive procurements for the reconstruction of Odesa and Mykolaiv regions

In 2024, more than 145 procurements were made in Odesa and Mykolaiv regions to restore property destroyed during Russia's armed aggression. The price of the issue is over UAH 775 million. Intent has investigated the most expensive reconstruction procurements in these regions.

They are repairing, repairing and not rebuilding: Serhiivka

In November, the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in Odesa Oblast announced an open tender for the overhaul of a 9-story building in the village of Serhiivka, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi district. The building was damaged by the Russians in July 2022. The expected cost of the works is UAH 45.9 million. The contractor must complete the work by the end of 2025. The client will accept bids until December 2, 2024.

This is not the first procurement for the restoration of this building. In total, there were at least three: in November and December 2022 and in November 2023. A total of UAH 87.5 million has already been spent on the restoration of this building.

In June 2023, journalists from the Center for Public Integrity visited the site of the tragedy and showed how the partially destroyed nine-story building looks after the first repair. In the first entrance, only emergency repair work was done, the building is sinking, and there are cracks next to the elevator shaft.

"The design and estimate documentation was done a year ago, but then it needed to be corrected, so it is still not finished. There are very high requirements for designers and expertise," local head Anatoliy Cherednychenko complained to the CPR during an interview.

He also explained that according to the first draft, everything was done urgently in order not to miss the deadlines for reconstruction, and no repair work on the elevator shafts was included.

Now, law enforcement officers have put the head of the Serhiyivka community, Anatoliy Cherednychenko, on a wanted list, accusing him of conspiring with some officials and entrepreneurs to misappropriate budget funds allocated for the repair of this nine-story building by overstating the amount of work actually performed, its cost, and the cost of the building materials used.

Not the first time: Odesa, Shevchenko Avenue

Photo: National Police

The Department of Municipal Economy of the Odesa City Council has announced a search for a contractor to restore the common property of an apartment building at 8-B Shevchenko Avenue. The expected cost of the purchase is 45.8 million hryvnias.

The first open bidding with special conditions was held in September. One bidder, Pilon West LLC, submitted a proposal.

According to the YouControl service, Pilon West LLC was registered in Odesa in 2008. The owners are residents of Odesa - Vyacheslav Petkov and Vyacheslav Vasiliev. The latter, according to media reports, is a former tax officer who was previously convicted of bribery. In general, Pilon West has a mixed reputation: the company has been repeatedly involved in criminal cases, in particular due to an increase in the actual cost of contracts. During its operation, the company has concluded 349 contracts totaling UAH 142.6 million.

Photo: screenshot/biprozorro

In mid-October, the department signed an agreement with them to restore the building for 45.5 million hryvnias. However, at the end of the month, the contract was terminated "by agreement of the parties." And in November, the customer announced a new tender.

The auction in the open bidding format took place on November 30. Only one participant came to the competition again. However, this time it was Stroy-Invest-Group-7 LLC. Their price offer is almost the same as the expected value and amounts to the same 45.8 million hryvnias. The contract with them has not yet been concluded; the company is awaiting the decision of the authorized person.

Stroy-Invest-Group-7 LLC is registered in Odesa. It has been on the market for over six years. The company is owned by Oleksandr Zinchenko and Dmytro Romanyuk from Odesa. During this time, the company has concluded 56 deals worth UAH 55.9 million.

Photo: screenshot/biprozorro

Damaged Odesa college restored by MP's aide

Odesa Technical Vocational College of ONTU. Photo: Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office

In October, a separate structural subdivision of the Odesa Technical Vocational College of the Odesa National Technological University announced a search for a contractor to overhaul the letter B educational building damaged by Russians on the night of February 8, 2024. The expected cost of the procurement was UAH 33.3 million. The contractor must complete the reconstruction work by the end of 2027.

Only Bessarabiyastroy LLC submitted its offer to participate in the auction. So the school signed an agreement with them for UAH 32.3 million.

"Bessarabiyastroy has been on the market for over eight years. According to media reports, Ratkov is an assistant consultant to Oleksandr Kasha, a member of the Odesa Regional Council from the Trust the Deeds party. Since its inception, the company has received 109 contracts worth UAH 176.6 million.

Photo: screenshot/biprozorro

Rejected-accepted: restoration of Odesa high-rise building on Seredna Street

In August 2024, the Department of Municipal Economy of the Odesa City Council announced an open tender with specifics for the restoration of a residential building at 24 Serednya Street in Odesa. On December 29, 2023, as a result of a massive missile strike on the city, the building suffered serious damage, with exterior walls, interior partitions, and structural elements damaged.

Photo: Oleh Kiper/collage Intent

The estimated cost of the work is UAH 32.7 million. The deadline for completion is December 31, 2025.

Only one participant, Stikon LLC, took part in the tender with a price offer of UAH 32.6 million. During the bid opening, the authorized person found that the company had not submitted all the necessary documents. The company was given a few days to eliminate the discrepancies and on October 7, an agreement was signed with it.

However, before that, in early August, the department also announced a tender for this procurement. The same Stikon company submitted its proposal for the auction. This time, too, the department rejected the proposal, explaining that the company had not provided a bank guarantee. At the same time, the procuring entity stated in the procurement itself that the auction was canceled because no bids were received.

According to the mayor's office, as of November 1, the contractor, Stikon LLC, has already started restoration work. The specialists are currently restoring exterior structures, interior walls and partitions, as well as preparing to reinforce the building and erect new elements.

Stikon LLC was registered in Odesa in 2003. The main founders are: Zhanna, Andriy and Leonid Kryuchkov, and Lyubov Cherepenko. The firm belongs to the Shokh family group, which specializes in construction, real estate, consulting and car sales. The firm is headed by Anatoliy Rahulin, a former deputy head of the Property Relations Department of the Odesa Regional Council.

Since 2016, the company has participated in public procurement ten times. The company received seven contracts worth UAH 79.8 million. Of these, the restoration of a house on Seredna Street is the most expensive.

Photo: screenshot/biprozorro

It should be noted that Stikon is also involved in the restoration of the Transfiguration Cathedral of the UOC (MP), which suffered from the Russian attack, and whose advertisement is now on the church.

No tender: reconstruction of a residential building in Mykolaiv

Photo: MikVisti

In October, the Department of Housing and Communal Services of the Mykolaiv City Council announced that it had selected a contractor to restore an apartment building at 67 Yantarna Street without using an electronic system, i.e. without an auction.

In September 2022, Russian shelling damaged building structures, windows, doors, ceilings, walls, floors, and a gas pipeline in the building. The estimated cost of the work was UAH 15.6 million.

The client signed the contract with entrepreneur Volodymyr Kondratyuk. He started his business in 2012. His main activity was "machining of metal products". However, other types of work include construction. During this time, the entrepreneur has participated 11 times in public procurement. At the same time, he received six contracts for 22 million 903 thousand hryvnias.

Photo: screenshot/biprozorro

It should be noted that the department had previously held three unsuccessful tenders for the restoration of this building. For the first time, the institution announced open bidding with specifics in May 2024. On June 14, due to the fact that none of the participants submitted proposals, the bidding was recognized as not taking place. On the same day, the Department of Housing and Communal Services announced a new open tender with special conditions and canceled it at the same time. The reason was that "in the electronic procurement system, the customer found that the annual plan published in the electronic procurement system did not contain the code of economic classification of budget expenditures and could not be changed or adjusted due to restrictions imposed by the electronic procurement system." The auction did not take place at the third attempt either, as no one participated in the competition.

Ties to ex-OIA official: how Mykolaiv house at 8A Samoilovycha Street is being renovated

Photo: korabelov.info

In May, the Department of Housing and Communal Services of the Mykolaiv City Council announced a tender for the overhaul of a residential building at 8-A Samoilovycha Street in Mykolaiv. One of the S-300 missiles hit the five-story building on the night of October 23, 2022, destroying apartments on the fifth floor. The fourth and third floors of the second entrance also collapsed. The debris and blast wave blew out windows and doors and damaged balconies.

The expected cost of the restoration work was UAH 15 million. Mykolaiv-based City-Stars LLC took part in the auction. The department signed a contract with them. So they had until November 15, 2024 to complete the reconstruction. However, due to a "delay in funding," the parties extended the deadline until April 2025. At the same time, the contract was extended until the end of 2025.

City-Stars has been on the market for a little over three years. The company is owned by Dmytro Kurbatov and Mykhailo Zhendubaiev from Mykolaiv. The latter also owns Mykolaivmiskbud, which, according to media reports, is related to Olga Vidina, the former head of the municipal property department of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration.

Since its inception, City-Stars has received four contracts worth UAH 59.3 million.

Photo: screenshot/biprozorro

The Department of Housing and Communal Services tried to procure repair work to rebuild this building in November last year. However, no bidders submitted their proposals at that time. So the procurement did not take place.

So we can summarize that contracts for the most expensive reconstruction procurements were more often awarded to firms with ambiguous pasts or those whose owners have ties to local authorities.

The material was prepared in cooperation with the BezBrekhni resource as part of the project "Controlling Recovery".

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