Currently, Ukraine needs to go not only the difficult path to victory, but also the path of post-war recovery. And already now, during the war, the state has begun the process of rebuilding settlements liberated from occupation, mainly Kyiv region.
Today, we will focus our attention on the state institution, the customer of tender purchases for the reconstruction of Kyiv Region - the Department of Regional Development of the Kyiv Regional State Administration and its officials , who coordinate the process of "fair and transparent" reconstruction.
Why do the tender purchases, on which the regional budget spends billions of hryvnias, go into the pockets of shell companies, and ordinary people once again winter without a roof over their heads? What new schemes are officials inventing to launder funds for the reconstruction of Kyiv region? And how much is kickback to get a gold mine in "transparent" tenders for the reconstruction of Kyiv region? Read our investigation.
In order to understand the situation, which is actually hidden behind the loud slogans of "transparent reconstruction" of Kyiv region and to reveal the confirmed facts, we selected all procurements where the customer is the Department of Regional Development of the Kyiv Regional State Administration and the title mentioned reconstruction, restoration, reconstruction and the phrase "suffered as a result of of Russian aggression". On the Prozorro website, during the period of major reconstruction, information is available on 800 concluded contracts with a total amount of more than UAH 7 billion. After analyzing part of the tenders, we discovered glaring facts that directly indicate corruption schemes. In fact, one or two companies participate in all tenders. Why are there so few bidders for such large tenders? The answer is below in the material.
According to the information available to us, the adviser to the head of KOVA - Oleksandr Vasyliovych Onishchenko, is the gray cardinal in the organization of tenders in the Kyiv Regional Military Administration. The official, having wide powers, created a scheme for laundering funds in the process of reconstruction of the Kyiv region, which has been worked out for years. According to our sources at KOVA, Onyshchenko openly offers "manual" companies, under which the requirements in the tender documentation are prescribed, to participate in tenders. The asking price is a 15% kickback from the announced purchase price in Oleksandr Onishchenko's pocket.
The contractors themselves complain that for more than two months the technical supervision has blocked them from signing the acts of completed works, sending everyone to Onishchenko to close financial issues. Business representatives also complain that Oleksandr Onyshchenko, the curator of reconstruction of the Kyiv region, openly threatens them with reprisals from law enforcement agencies if they participate in tenders without the approval of KOVA. Obviously, it was Onyshchenko who took control of the tender committee of the Department of Regional Development of the Regional Development Authority of Ukraine and only allows affiliated contractors . From the photos published by the press service of KOVA, it can be seen that Oleksandr Onyshchenko, as an adviser to the head of Ruslan Kravchenko, takes a direct part in working meetings related to reconstruction, and also conducts on-site inspections of construction sites in the region. Thus, it is Onyshchenko on behalf of the Kyiv OVA that coordinates the corrupt system of rebuilding the Kyiv region. We would like to remind you that financing for the reconstruction of housing affected by Russian aggression comes from European donors. However, corruption schemes in the Kyiv region and the thirst for enrichment have reached such a scale that officials do not realize the responsibility that awaits them.
What is wrong with the tenders from the KOVA Department of Regional Development?
We analyzed several tenders announced by the Regional Development Department of KOVA and the companies that participated in them. For example, the purchase of "Major repair with restoration of load-bearing structures of residential building No. 367А on the street Central in the village of Borodyanka damaged as a result of the aggressive actions of the Russian Federation against Ukraine" was announced in July 2023. The expected cost is 52 million 210 thousand UAH. Three companies submitted to the tender - LLC "NIDCOM" with an offer of 47 million 802 thousand UAH, LLC "STROYINVEST" with an offer of 48 million 320 thousand UAH, and LLC "COMPANY VEGA KM" with an offer of 49 million 457 thousand UAH.
The company with a dubious reputation "STROYINVEST" won. The company has been registered in Dnipro since 2014 and has a criminal record. In recent years, the company has won tenders worth more than 4 billion hryvnias. These are mostly purchases by the Dnipro Regional State Administration. The owner of the company is Lazar Nataliya, and "Stroyinvest" LLC is linked in open sources to Gennady Korban.
In the summer of last year, the Dnipro Prosecutor's Office reported on criminal proceedings regarding the appropriation of funds during the renovation of the sports complex. It was about repairing the SC in Dnipro on Universalna Street for 149 million hryvnias. This facility was supposed to be completed by Stroyinvest LLC in 2018, but in 2019, when the company received an advance, it turned out that the work had not actually been completed. As of 2020, it was reported that the company received 148 million, but the work was never finished. The company is also involved in a criminal case regarding tax evasion.
The Department of Regional Development has conducted many such "black" tenders, which cast a shadow on the naked eye. For example, the tender "Overhaul of a residential building at the address: Kyiv region, Buchansky district, village Gostomel, prov. Picturesque 5” has already been announced four times, starting in September 2023. After the bidding, the tender was canceled each time, even if there were participants. One company, STATE JOINT STOCK COMPANY "BUDIVELNA KOMPANY "UKRBUD" took part in the tender, which was announced on September 18. However, the customer rejected the offer. From the tender documentation, we can see that the residents of the building contested the customer's decision, expecting that their house would start to be rebuilt by winter. They even sent a complaint to the State Audit Service.
However, KODA canceled the tender and announced it again 10 days later, and then three more times. It is obvious that the customer could not agree with any company about the rollback, and therefore simply canceled the purchase. So the residents of the house are wintering again without a roof over their heads.
In its justification, the Department of Regional Development always has a standard official answer - "to cancel the procurement due to non-compliance with the terms of the technical specification and other requirements regarding the subject of procurement of the tender documentation." However, as practice shows, not all participants are disqualified by the tender committee of the Department due to inconsistencies in the documentation. So, for example, in the purchase of "New construction of a protective structure of civil protection on the territory of the Ivankivskyi Lyceum on St. Tsentralna, 2 in the village. Ivankiv of Boryspil district of Kyiv region" was attended by only one participant - LLC "INTEGRAL BUD-STANDARD". And it is not surprising, because the requirements for tender offers contain a number of discriminatory requirements that are practically impossible for a participant "from the outside" to fulfill during the short period of submitting tender offers. 36 specialties in the field of labor protection, 7 types of work permits that do not actually intersect with the subject of procurement, 5 DSTU ISO certificates, which are also not provided for in the technical task. Therefore, the only one in Ukraine who was able to fulfill these exacting conditions was "INTEGRAL BUILD-STANDARD" LLC, with whom the contract for the performance of works was signed. However, analyzing the tender offer of the winner, we see that their documentation has a number of inconsistencies, in particular, in the part of the estimate.
According to data from open registers, LLC "INTEGRAL BUD-STANDARD" has a criminal and fictitious reputation. Thus, according to the decision of the Pechersk District Court of the city of Kyiv in case No. 757/46574/18-k, in September 2017, the Department of Education of the Darnytskyi District State Administration in Kyiv conducted a procurement procedure on the subject of "Reconstruction of stadiums and sports grounds" (2 lots). with a budget of UAH 87.798 million (Lot No. 1 – general educational institution No. 62 and Lot No. 2 – general educational institution No. 111). The participants in the procurements for both lots were SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION ENTERPRISE "AQUASERVIS" LLC (winner of Lot 2) and LLC "BC "BUDIVELNA STOLYTSYA" (winner of Lot 1), which have signs of fictitiousness.
Economic Protection of the National Police, the state funds received by "SCIENTIFIC-PRODUCTIVE ENTERPRISE "AQUASERVIS" LLC and "BC "BUDIVELNA STOLYTSYA" LLC for the above-mentioned purchases were transferred to the account of the company with signs of fictitiousness "INTEGRAL BUILD-STANDARD" LLC. The last part of the funds received for the partial execution of the works, directly or through the accounts of related companies, with the aim of taking possession of them and transferring them to cash, was transferred to the accounts of other enterprises with signs of fictitiousness. In addition, the pre-trial investigation body established that the general contractor and subcontractor LLC "INTEGRAL BUILD-STANDARD" did not perform the works stipulated in the contract of the general contractor for tender procurement. The case continues to this day. Despite the fact that "INTEGRAL BUD-STANDARD" LLC has a criminal history in tender procurement, currently the Department of Regional Development of KOVA actively promotes this firm as an active participant in the reconstruction of Kyiv region and concludes a number of contracts with it.
An even more interesting situation occurred with the tender procurement for the capital repair of the Makariv Pre-School Education Institution "Prolisok" of the Makariv Settlement Council with the arrangement of shelter and improvement of the surrounding area. The Department of Regional Development of the Code of Administrative Offenses also acted as the customer of the purchase. The tender was announced twice. The auction was held for the first time in October 2023. Two companies took part: "AES-GRUPP" LLC and "EVROELITBUD" LLC. According to the results of the auction, AES-GRUPP LLC was sent for qualification with a lower price offer. However, the customer, in the person of the Department of Regional Development of KOVA, disqualified the participant, referring to inconsistencies in the technical task. Analyzing this purchase at the Prozorro site, we learned that AES-GRUPP did not agree with this decision of the customer and filed a complaint with the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, winning this complaint on all points.
What is interesting, the explanations of the tender committee of the customer interpret the disqualification as the fact that the indicators of the volumes of materials of "AES-GRUPP" LLC do not correspond to the specifications by 0.001 kopeck.
However, in clause 3.20 of the tender documentation there is a concept of "rounding of figures". Such roundings, according to the documentation, which cannot lead to a change in value, are considered permissible and legal. The satisfaction of the complaint in the Antimonopoly Committee confirms this thesis, as they obliged the customer to cancel its decision on the disqualification of "AES-GRUPP" LLC and return it for re-qualification. However, it is obvious that the KOVA Department, in the person of its curator Oleksandr Onyshchenko, does not feel the law under his feet so much that he again disqualified this company from bidding and recognized the winner of "EUROELITBUD" LLC, which is an affiliated participant of the same Oleksandr Onyshchenko.
From the Prozorro platform, it can be seen that, not agreeing with such a decision, AES-GRUPP LLC submitted a complaint to the Antimonopoly Committee again with its own comments on the tender documentation of EUROELITBUD LLC.
Analyzing the text of the complaint, it can be seen that the complainant insists on the reliability of his indicators and claims that the offer of "EUROELITBUD" LLC contains more gross violations of the tender documentation, in particular, in the calculations, qualifications and scope of work, which reach errors in the thousands. But for some reason, the customer did not pay attention to this, recognizing "EUROELITBUD" as the winner. These facts confirm the information on the open site "Prozorro".
Taking into account such an unfavorable situation and realizing the possibility of repeated loss in the Antimonopoly Committee, the Department of Regional Development announced the tender anew, which, to put it mildly, looks quite strange and illegal.
Obviously, when the KOVA Department comes across procurement participants who are legally savvy and ready to fight for their rights, and the customer does not find a way to "give" the tender to their pocket firms, they simply "break" the procurement, announcing anew, with tougher requirements for their people.
After analyzing dozens of tender purchases from KOVA, it becomes absolutely obvious that the transparent reconstruction of Kyiv region is a soap fake, on which officials earn colossal sums of laundered funds, leaving ordinary people without a roof over their heads. And Oleksandr Onyshchenko himself holds the corruption lever so confidently in the Kyiv Regional Military Administration that he is not afraid of either the top political leadership or law enforcement agencies. After all, he himself is a protégé of the head of the administration Ruslan Kravchenko, and he, as we know, is a former prosecutor, so he has unlimited influence in the prosecutor's office to cover his gray cardinal. So Onyshchenko, feeling quite protected, very brazenly negotiates with bidders, takes kickbacks for each negotiated tender of 15% with an advance payment right in the premises of the "Gotovo" service center near KOVA. So what? The system works, you don't have to go far.
But how is all this possible if a bloody war has been going on in the country for two years? It turns out that our officials and politicians-businessmen learned to make money from it almost immediately. It seems that the recently appointed head of KOVA, Ruslan Kravchenko, has so quickly absorbed the features of a typical official that he no longer smells of blood money.
