A scheme to embezzle almost a billion hryvnias from the construction of bomb shelters and fortifications has been exposed in the Kharkiv region. At the center of the scam is the private company Project Alliance LLC, which received contracts without open bidding, at inflated prices, and often without proper quality of work.
Project Alliance LLC is a party to dozens of contracts totaling over 987 million hryvnias, most of which relate to the construction of shelters during martial law. Almost all of these agreements were concluded under a simplified procedure without real competition.
A key role in the scheme is played by Andriy Kolos, a former city council deputy, former official of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, and now a member of the city council executive committee. Through the legal entities under his control, it is he who coordinates access to the most lucrative contracts, including those financed from the defense budget.
The most suspicious thing is the cost of construction materials in the estimates. For example:
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B30 concrete is laid at 6,600 UAH/m³, although the market price is about 4,000;
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crushed stone — 4,900 UAH/m³ versus regular 900–1,200 UAH;
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bracket — 117 thousand UAH per unit, while it can be bought on the market for 200 UAH.
For just a few items, the overpayment amounted to at least 8 million hryvnias.
In practice, the constructed structures are often unusable. There are reports of cracks in the fortifications, collapsed ceilings, filled-in trenches, and lack of ventilation. In Krasnograd and Blyznyuki, where the shelters cost over 150 million hryvnias, the communities refuse to accept them on the balance sheet due to gross violations of regulations.
The Project Alliance company often turned out to be the only participant in tenders or received additional agreements to the main contract — also without competition. This scheme allows for the unhindered inflating of the scope and cost of work.
Despite the large-scale violations, law enforcement agencies and local authorities are not taking any action. No one has yet been held criminally responsible for the embezzlement of almost a billion in defense funds.
