The state -owned enterprise "Center for Protection of Information Space of Ukraine" has concluded a contract of UAH 12.24 million with the company "Media Life" for monitoring of Ukrainian and foreign media. The tender was without competition, because the "media" was the sole participant.
The contract provides a daily, weekly and monthly analysis of the presidential references, the first lady, the Presidential Office, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Verkhovna Rada, the General Staff, Ministers, Heads of Departments, Advisers and Speakers. Monitoring will cover the Telemarphone, the ten largest TV channels, more than a thousand online media, as well as social networks: Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, Youtube, Telegram and Tiktok. English -speaking, German -speaking and French -speaking media will also be monitored, especially during foreign visits of representatives of the Ukrainian authorities.
The reports received by government officials will contain an analysis of the information space, including an assessment of the tonality of mentions, key topics, ratings of persons, the effectiveness of communication campaigns and predicting media risks. Some analytical reports will consider resonant events and sociological studies of social moods.
Compared to last year, the cost of individual services has increased significantly. In particular, daily monitoring of the media went up from 5 040 UAH to 6 840 UAH, and social networks - twice, from 1 800 UAH to 3 600 UAH. The cost of the daily analytical report increased from UAH 2 400 to 4 800 UAH, weekly report-from 60 000 UAH to 96 000 UAH, and monthly SWOT analysis-from 74 400 UAH to 100 800 UAH. Sociological research will cost 540 000 UAH, while last year its cost was 144 000 UAH.
The Media Life Company, which won the tender, belongs to the People's Deputy from the "servant of the people" Alexander Marikovsky. In Wikipedia, he is still stated as the Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Environmental Policy and Advisor to the State Secretary of the Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine, which previously founded the State Enterprise “Center for Protection of Information Space of Ukraine” - the customer of the current contract. Now this enterprise reports to the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications.
The tender documentation contains a model of the report in which the head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak is referred to as a person who "takes on the functions of the President", and his deputy Oleg Tatarov is "not a textbook example of corruption and pro -Russian sentiment in Vladimir Zelensky".
The contract for millions of hryvnias without competition and the rapid increase in the cost of services raise issues, in particular regarding the efficiency of budget expenditures.
