Law enforcement officers have uncovered large-scale corruption schemes in the Kyiv City State Administration's Health Department. According to investigators, officials organized fictitious tenders and purchased medical supplies at inflated prices from companies linked to Kuzma, Fistaly, and Bakhteeva. The losses to the Kyiv budget could reach billions of hryvnias per year.
The police began an active phase of investigative actions on September 30, conducting searches in the offices of the health department at 19 Prorizna Street. Later, searches were carried out in the homes of officials and in a number of metropolitan hospitals - No. 1, No. 4, No. 5, and No. 18. The investigation was conducted within the framework of criminal proceedings opened on July 31.
In October, the head of the State Anti-Corruption Commission, Valentina Ginzburg, unexpectedly resigned after eight years on the job. Vitaliy Klitschko soon fired his first deputy, Mykola Povoroznyk. The investigation believes that the shadow organizer of the schemes was Povoroznyk's advisor, Oleksandr Dobrovsky, who has already left Ukraine.
According to law enforcement officials, one of the key coordinators of the schemes was the deputy director of the department, Oleg Yakubivsky. It was he who received files from Povoroznyk's advisor with "correctly" prepared technical requirements for tenders and ensured the adoption of conditions that allowed the selected companies to be guaranteed to win. Competitors were cut off at an early stage.
The scheme was set up in such a way that medical products and equipment were purchased with a markup of 300–500%. The annual volume of purchases in Kyiv alone exceeded UAH 2 billion.
According to investigators, the officials lobbied for the interests of Medgarant, Protek Solutions, Artek Medical Group, and NVF KATO. Their actual cost of goods increased several times, and the difference became a source of excess profits.
The key figures in the scheme have long been known in the medical business. "NVF Kato" and "Medgarant" are connected to the entourage of former MP Tatyana Bakhteeva, who is considered the "tender queen" of the Yanukovych era. The company "Artek Medical Group" belongs to the Fistal brothers - the family of the famous surgeon Emil Fistal, who supported the "DPR" militants.
These business structures are connected not only by a common history, but also by political ties. The former head of the capital's DOZ, Valentina Ginzburg, was even arrested in 2014 for involving hospitals in the Party of Regions' campaign schemes. Later, Bakhteeva and her circle ensured her transfer to Kyiv.
A separate direction was operated by the company "Protek Solutions", the formal owners of which are Natalia Tugay and Fedir Kirpenko, and the real one is Mykola Kuzma. In the past, he was an assistant to Raisa Bogayryova and actively competed with Bakhteeva's group, but later they divided the public procurement market between themselves.
In 2024, the scale of these purchases was impressive:
Protek Solutions — UAH 3.2 billion,
Artek Medical Group — UAH 3 billion,
Medgarant — UAH 1 billion,
NVF Kato — UAH 107 million.
A significant part of these tenders fell precisely on Kyiv.
The investigation is ongoing. Law enforcement officers do not rule out the possibility of indicting new suspects, as well as the possible expansion of the case to other cities where related companies operate.
