Expose systemic abuses during the construction of shelters in Kyiv with a total cost of 2.8 billion hryvnias
Journalists investigated the 20 largest procurements related to the repair and construction of shelters in Kyiv, with a total value of 2.8 billion hryvnias. As a result of the analysis, they found numerous signs of possible corruption schemes — in particular, a significant overestimation of prices for construction materials compared to market prices. This is reported in a journalistic investigation.
In particular, during the study of the tender for the overhaul of the simplest shelter, which belongs to the consultative and diagnostic center in the Dniprovsky district, experts analyzed 11 items of the estimate and recorded a potential overpayment of 1.3 million hryvnias. This is almost 9% of the total contract amount.
Price increases were found for a number of materials, including plaster, primer, sewage installations and other items. In addition, in many cases, the tender documentation lacks technical specifications for materials, which actually makes it impossible to make a correct comparison with market prices.
In the tender worth 15 million hryvnias, the winner was the company ITEN BUD, which was the only bidder. Analysts believe that the procurement conditions could have been deliberately formulated for a specific company. In particular, the customer established overly detailed requirements for the certification of workers in labor protection and electrical safety, which, according to experts, limited competition.
Similar signs of possible overpayments were also found in the tender for the construction of the first underground school in Kyiv in the Dnipro district worth 298 million hryvnias. According to experts, the overpricing could have reached about 14 million hryvnias, which is almost 5% of the contract amount.
“On just one waterproofing primer, the city could have saved at least 8 million hryvnias. The winner of the tender is LLC “CONSTRUCTION CITY K” – a capital company that appeared in 2023 with an authorized capital of 50 thousand hryvnias. In two years, it received tenders from the state for a total of 349 million hryvnias. All tenders, except one, are for works in the Dnipro district of Kyiv, journalists write.
The journalists also drew attention to the extremely small authorized capitals of the companies that won the tenders for the most expensive shelters.
Among them is the company SERVICE COMFORT STROY with an authorized capital of 10 thousand hryvnias, which won the tender for the repair of the shelter and a number of offices of the State Expert Center of the Ministry of Health in Solomyansky district for 24 million hryvnias. As well as the three-year-old “Architectural and Construction Company “UKRBUD” with a charter capital of only 500 hryvnias, which won a tender for a storage facility at a school in the Dnipro district for 14 million hryvnias, the investigation says.
Separately, journalists note that companies associated with local officials also become winners of multi-million tenders for shelters. Among them is LLC “TECHNOBUDSERVICE 2006”, which received a contract for over 20 million hryvnias to repair the basement of the dormitory of the capital’s sports lyceum in the Solomyansky district.
The charter capital of this company is 37,500 hryvnias, and its beneficiary is Serhiy Opanasenko, a deputy of the Polissya district council of the Kyiv region. The company was the only participant in the tender for the repair of the shelter.
