How does the daughter of the director of Nikolaevvodokanal spend her time during the onset of a full-scale war and what secrets does their family hide?
In Nikolaev, the difficult situation with water supply as a result of the war has been ongoing for more than a year. However, despite the promises of the authorities, no significant progress in solving this problem is visible. At the same time, the family of the head of the water utility, Boris Dudenko, does not seem to deny themselves anything. How does the daughter of the director of Nikolaevvodokanal have fun during a full-scale invasion and what condition is their family hiding? And was the money that the city so desperately needs now really thrown away?
There has been no fresh water in Nikolaev since April 12, 2022. It disappeared due to the Dnieper-Nikolaev water pipeline being interrupted by Russian invaders. Salt water from the estuary began to be supplied to the system of the regional center. Such water cannot be purified and used. But what’s much worse is that within a few months, the salt it contained actually destroyed the water supply network.
The mayor of Nikolaev, Alexander Senkevich says that the water taken from the Southern Bug is gradually destroying the pipes.
The director of the city utility company Nikolaevvodokanal, Boris Dudenko, in turn, said that French specialists are developing alternative solutions to the water issue .
Last year, the company suffered a loss of UAH 164.6 million , and another almost UAH 140 million in just half of 2023. Such financial results at the water utility are explained by the high cost of services. The number of people in the city who used water and paid money for it decreased. On the contrary, the costs of repairing the water supply network have increased significantly.
Due to problems with water in Nikolaev, budgetary funds and foreign aid are flowing into the municipal water utility, such as kilometers of water pipes, powerful generators and pumps, and repair equipment.
Despite the difficult situation with fresh water in Nikolaev, the daughter of the director of Nikolaevvodokanal is having fun in Odessa, throwing away wads of dollars.
a video was published on social networks where the daughter of the head of Nikolaevvodokanal Boris Dudenko, 21-year-old Ekaterina, loudly celebrates her birthday: she drives around the center of Odessa in a Mercedes-Benz G 550 and scatters dollar bills.
In the spring of 2022, this particular jeep was sold at AvtoRIA for 40 thousand dollars.
Although the cost of the car is no longer surprising, we note that this amount is approximately equal to her father’s salary as general director of the water utility for almost two years.
Meanwhile, Boris Dudenko assured that the video was fake money, because “his daughter said so.” He also stated that Catherine’s would not allow her to throw away real banknotes.
The video received mixed reactions. In particular, users accuse the daughter of the head of Nikolaevvodokanal of the inappropriateness of such behavior at a time when, against the backdrop of large-scale water problems in her native Nikolaev, the municipal water utility receives not only budget funds, but also foreign aid.
The public, of course, was outraged by this behavior of the daughter of the director of the water utility against the backdrop of the crisis with drinking water, which continues in Nikolaev from April 12, 2022 and losses of 140 million UAH for this utility company.
Let us remind you that on June 6, the Cabinet of Ministers allocated 120 million hryvnia to the State Agency of Water Resources for the sustainable provision of drinking water to the residents of Nikolaev .
What is hidden behind the “modest” fortune of the Dudenko family
The declaration of the general director of Nikolaevvodokanal turned out to be quite modest. Boris Dudenko has an apartment and a salary. An apartment in Nikolaev with an area of 81 square meters is registered in his name. A plot of land of 1 hectare is registered to his wife Natalya Natalya Dudenko also owns the only Volkswagen car in the family, worth just over half a million hryvnia. Boris Dudenko, as CEO, earned 793,736 hryvnia in 2020. His wife received a salary of 202,864 hryvnia.
The general director of the water utility keeps 269 euros and 14,445 dollars in banks. His wife saves her savings in cash. This is 38,000 dollars, 18,500 euros, 380,000 hryvnia.
Officially, the general director of the Nikolaevvodokanal MCP, Boris Dudenko, and his family live quite modestly. The property has only 1 hectare of land. However, we learned that a house of 200 square meters had already appeared on this land. And Dudenko’s drives an expensive Mercedes and during the war she posts a video on social networks of herself throwing away money from it.
According to the NGO “Nikolaev Center for Investigative Journalism”, the family of the director of “Nikolaevvodokanal” Boris Dudenko lives in grand style, even despite the war in Ukraine.
Distributed 640 million hryvnia without tenders
Since the beginning of 2022, MCP Nikolaevvodokanal has made purchases worth about UAH 1 billion . More than half of them – UAH 641 million – were distributed without bidding on Prozorro.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, the company has paid 55 million UAH for water fittings from a Polish manufacturer. It is imported and sold in Ukraine by the Invar Trading House. According to Clarity Project analytics, Nikolaevvodokanal is the second on the list who signed the most contracts with this company.
Invar received most of these funds for taps, couplings and similar devices – UAH 31.8 million – through non-competitive procurement. In another tender for UAH 3.5 million, this company was the only participant.
Let us recall that at the last commission on housing and communal services, Vladislav Entin criticized the head of the enterprise, Dudenko’s refusal to provide deputies with the staffing table and salaries of Nikolaevvodokanal employees.
New “nest” for 200 square meters
Boris Dudenko has been managing Nikolaevvodokanal since 2016. During this time, the director of the Communist Party declared rather modest gains. Together with his wife Natalya and daughter Ekaterina, he allegedly lived in his mother’s apartment. The family has nothing to do with business: Natalya Dudenko was registered as an individual entrepreneur in the retail trade of automobile parts, but closed her sole proprietorship back in 2014. According to her husband’s declaration, in 2020 she earned about 200 thousand UAH. During a full-scale war, Boris Dudenko receives an average of 66 thousand UAH in net wages per month. Officially, the head of the water utility does not own anything. A 2013 Volkswagen Touareg and a 10-acre plot of land in the Korabelny district of Nikolaev are registered to his wife. It was here that they recently built a new house with an area of about 200 square meters. m.
A manor of a similar area in the same area of Nikolaev without interior decoration costs , according to advertisements, about 3 million UAH.
According to permitting documents and the development passport, construction work began “on our own” in 2021. However, we learned from trusted sources that municipal equipment .
Boris Dudenko confirmed that he actually hired it for private construction, but does not see any violations in this, he simply rented it at half the price.
“ Several times I took advantage of the opportunity to rent water utility equipment with a 50% discount in 2021. This can be done if I am a member of our trade union committee ,” said the general director.
In March 2024, the integrity check of the Nikolaevvodokanal utility company will be completed. It was facilitated by the EU anti-corruption initiative. After all, dubious purchases at the water utility are carried out at a time when Nikolaev residents risk being left without water altogether.
Instead of searching for profitable offers through the Prozorro system, the enterprise prefers to use the possibilities of behind-the-scenes agreements. And the money that the city so needs now, just as it does not go for water, is “thrown away” behind the “wind.”
It is also worth noting that Boris Dudenko was the head of STANDARD-D LLC / 32720188
54000, Nikolaev region, Nikolaev city, YANTARNAYA street, 320
Interestingly, there is a company with the same name in Russia.
How Dudenko “justified” a salary of 40 thousand a month
During his year as director of the city water utility, Boris Leonidovich managed to read three books, from which he learned what a “pressure collector” is, and as a bonus he received a monthly salary of 40 thousand hryvnia. Deputy of the Nikolaev City Council Vladislav Entin on his Facebook page published a recording of a hidden recording of a conversation between Boris Dudenko and water utility workers.
Thus, in a conversation with employees, the general director said that he considered himself an expert in the field of the enterprise, since since his appointment to the position he had read three books “about water supply systems.”
– I was brought here on June 15 last year, and I have already read three books “about water pipes.”
Despite losses of 140 million UAH of Nikolaevvodokanal, in Nikolaev Danish experts presented projects for restoring water supply
On December 13, 2023, a working meeting between representatives of the city council and the Danish company COWI, which is participating in the development of the city Master Plan, took place in Nikolaev.
The Nikolaev City Council reported this on its website
As noted by the Secretary of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Denmark, Franziska Kirkegaard Flygt , they are proud of their cooperation with the hero city of Nikolaev and hope that this will continue in the future, because the Master Plan provides for work on the reconstruction of the city for years to come.
Ana Paes , who is also working on the development of the Master Plan, joined the meeting online She talked about the work that had been done.
“We want the innovation district to be one of the first investment projects that will help in the reconstruction of the city ,” summarizes Ana Paez.
That is, the plans are not just to restore the centralized supply of drinking water, but to modernize the system as a whole.
“We don’t just want to restore what was, but do it better. Decades have passed since Ukraine gained independence, and the public services sector has been constantly underfunded. As a result, the system wore out and the situation worsened. By 2014, by 2022 there were problems in the water supply network. Now, against the backdrop of the war, the situation has worsened. Therefore, we do not just want to return to what was before the war. And plan the restoration so that the situation is acceptable for any city in Europe. Make a plan so that it is of high quality,” says Jesper Karup Pedersen, technical director for economics and management of the Danish company COWI
Work on the city Master Plan continues, and representatives of the city council and European partners will have several more working meetings ahead before submitting the finished document for consideration at the session.
So, despite the problems with the supply of fresh water in Nikolaev, the director of the Nikolaevvodokanal Dudenko Boris Leonidovich allows his daughter Ekaterina to have fun in an expensive car, throwing around wads of dollars. Also, taking advantage of his official position, he used municipal equipment for private construction. And instead of using the Prozorro system, his company prefers to use the possibilities of behind-the-scenes agreements.
StopCor analysts, in turn, also turned to the director of Nikolaevvodokanal Boris Dudenko with a request to clarify the circumstances of how, with such a modest salary of the head of the KP, he is able to provide his family with such a rather luxurious life.
