The mayor of Vishnevoy, Ilya Dikov, intended to move to a new modern building of the city council in the next year and a half. However, the construction of a four-story building for the mayor’s office, presented as a location for the Administrative Services Center (ASC) for UAH 193 million in Vyshneve (near Kiev), is cancelled. It is interesting to note that the ASC was already opened in this city in 2016 and 2017.
After people's indignation, a petition , appeals to the State Audit Service and a corresponding audit, everything ended with the termination of the contract with the contractor.
The almost 200 million dollar purchase was found to be overpriced, and the construction of a new building for the city hall, while there is an urgent need to restore housing for people, is not a priority now.
The Anti-Corruption Center IZI revealed that prices were inflated by UAH 7 million, of which UAH 4.9 million was for fittings alone and another more than UAH 2 million was for doors and blocks. reported an overstatement of UAH 5 million .
In particular, they planned to pay almost twice as much for reinforcing steel, the market price of which was 33 thousand UAH/ton, and the estimated price was over 53 thousand UAH. Doors for shelters in the estimate were calculated at 336 thousand UAH per piece, while on the market they cost half as much - about 149 thousand UAH. They planned to purchase aerated concrete blocks for 5.3 thousand UAH, while their real price is 3.2 thousand UAH. They could have overpaid 300 thousand UAH on cable alone (see screenshot 1 and screenshot 2).
Purchasing like a rich man
Not only “double” prices were noted in Vishnevoe. In the new building, instead of the old cinema, they planned to establish a “center of cultural life”: the mayor’s office—CPAU—museum—buffet. For the buffet they wanted to purchase a professional coffee maker for 167 thousand UAH, grills, microwaves and waffle irons for almost 20 thousand UAH and other equipment.
Six modular kitchens were apparently intended for management offices. Just a set of furniture for one manager’s office would cost more than 250 thousand UAH.
The winner of the auction was Maxima Bud LLC, which offered a price only 4 thousand UAH lower than expected. On November 10, the KP “Main Department of Public Utilities” of the Vishneva City Council entered into an agreement with the contractor. Previously, Maxima Bud LLC had already carried out smaller contracts in the city council for storm sewer repairs.
Already on November 23, the contract was terminated. The formal reason is a technical error on the part of the designer LLC Design Company Inzhgroup when calculating the expected cost of the subject of purchase.
But they discovered a “technical” error only when, at the request of the State Audit Service as part of procurement monitoring, the fund manager had to provide supporting documents justifying the purchase.
“ By letter ref. 01-2311/23 dated November 23, 2023, the head of the design organization LLC Project Company Inzhgroup was informed of a technical error made during the calculation of the expected cost of the procurement item. On the basis of which we additionally consider it necessary to inform about the termination of Contract No. 1-AB dated November 10, 2023 due to identified inaccuracies (inconsistencies) during the procurement procedure, the result of which was the conclusion of Contract No. 1-AB dated November 10, 2023 . As a result, an agreement was reached between the parties to terminate the contract No. 1-AB dated November 10, 2023. Relevant information and documents will be made public in the electronic procurement system ,” notes the customer’s explanation (see screenshot 3).
In fact, the blame for inflating prices was shifted to the designer, who developed the project commissioned by the same utility company.
How customers and contractors get away with everything
The typical result of identifying inflated prices in irrelevant tenders or purchases is simply the termination of contracts and a possible refund of funds. This happened with drums , vegetable cutters, stadiums, and this happened with the mayor’s office in Vishnevo. Only “balls of 17” due to the impact on political reputation ended in dismissal for Defense Minister Reznikov. After all, we were talking about actual payments, and not about planned ones.
Despite the fact that in such procurements significant markups and obvious signals of corruption are revealed, customers and contractors do not face liability. Of course, in case of timely termination of contracts with justification for “technical” errors or lack of need for procurement.
But such cases of inflated prices and unreasonable purchases cause irritation in society, disappointment among the military and damage the image of the country.
How to stop irrelevant purchases?
In our situation, when virtually all restoration and repairs are financed by international partners, preventing and stopping unjustified purchases is more important.
This will mean that in Ukraine there is public control and anti-corruption bodies are operating.
Monitoring tenders on Prozorro and researching connections on Youcontrol or other platforms can be useful, especially if violations are reported to the relevant authorities.
This can be done directly in the purchase on Prozorro by clicking “Inform about damage.” But a more effective way is to report violations in procurement directly to the State Administration of Ukraine, leaving a request using the usual Google form.
After all, despite the fact that the construction of the city hall in Vishneve has been suspended, this does not mean that after some time the customer will not return to this tender again. Therefore, public control over wartime spending, as well as the prioritization of reconstruction funds, must be strong.
