A UAH 2.3 million project and gymnastics equipment for a shelter: how the Kyiv Solomianskyi District Education Department spends money during the war

Viktor Uzhytskyi, Acting Head of the Department of Education of the Solomyanska District State Administration in the city of Kyiv

In Kyiv, the confrontation between the city government, which manages the capital’s budget with a  surplus of UAH 12 billion ($330 million), according to the Economic HUB project, continues: Sound  PFM Policies and Vision for Growth, and conscious Ukrainians who demand that most of the money  from the budget be redirected to the needs of the Armed Forces.

Against the backdrop of this struggle, a resident of the Solomianskyi district of Kyiv addressed the  editorial office of Active Citizens, who sees a corruption component in tenders worth millions of hryvnias  held, in particular, by the Department of Education of the Solomianskyi District State  Administration in Kyiv. In his opinion, the tender documents are drawn up in such a way that the future  «winner» prepares an estimate for himself for themselves to be able to withdraw large sums from the budget.

According to the Kyiv resident, the corruption component in the selection of the winner of the tender has  been observed since the announcement of the tender and the discriminatory requirements in the  Simplified Procurement Conditions and in the tender documentation of open tenders. In particular,  there was a change in the requirement to provide a copy of the declaration of compliance of the material  and technical base with the requirements of the legislation on labor protection. The number of the CMU  Resolution on the registration of the Declaration by the relevant body of the State Labor Service was also  changed. If you need to remove someone from the bidding, there is a requirement for the original  certificate issued by the authorized body of the State Tax Service of Ukraine on the Bidder’s open  accounts.

Moreover, it must be issued no earlier than the date of the procurement announcement (!). Instead, according to the Kyiv resident, tenders are usually won by companies that provide expired contracts. Here is an example of a procurement procedure (procurement identifier  UA-2021-06-22-006904-c) for the subject of procurement: DBN A.2.2-3:2014 "Current  (emergency) repair of the laundry room in the kindergarten № 477 at 33-a Solomianska Street" for  the amount of UAH 177 thousand.

Minutes (decision) №156 of the tender committee of 15.07.2021. Department of Education Solomyansky District State Administration in Kyiv recognized the proposal of the LLC as economically advantageous,  which violated several requirements of the tender and the legislation of Ukraine in general. For example,  the company provided the Act of Visual Inspection of the facility without the date of the LLC  representative’s visit to the facility, i.e., it was not executed in accordance with the requirements of the current regulations. Also, in Annex 2 of the Bidding Documents, the Procuring Entity required the submission of a copy of the Agreement with the company on the removal of construction waste. The procuring entity did not reject the tender offer of this LLC, which included the expired construction waste removal agreement, and thus violated the requirements of the TD and the requirements of Article  31 of the Law.

Also, in accordance with the requirements of Annex 2 of the TC,the submitted estimate documentation had to be developed in the AVK-5 software package version 3.6.0 (not lower), signed and sealed (if any)  by the participating organization, as well as signed and sealed (if any) by a certified design engineer).  The LLC recognized as the winner of the tender provided information without justification of the price  and without reference to the supplier, and the price offer for materials was provided by another LLC that  did not participate in the tender.

The tender documentation for «Current (emergency) repair of the fence in the penitentiary facility No. 69 at 25 Donetska Street, Solomianskyi district of Kyiv» is also not in order. In this case, the winner of  the tender did not provide invoices for all the materials declared in the list of resources to the  consolidated estimate, and the Act of visual inspection of the facility by the representatives of the LLC  does not contain the date of their visit to the facility, i.e. it was not executed in accordance with the  requirements of the current regulations. In accordance with the requirements of part 2 of Annex 2, the  Bidders shall provide a copy of the declaration of compliance of the material and technical base with the  requirements of the labor protection legislation registered by the relevant body of the State Labor Service. This includes work performed at a height of more than 1.3 meters. The declaration of the LLC  that was recognized as the winner of the tender did not contain information about work at a height of  more than 1.3 meters.

There was also a case when a participant who won one tender applied to the Antimonopoly Committee three times, was recognized as the winner three times, and the customer canceled  the tender (UA-2021-08-19-002652-c). It seems that by such actions, the procuring entity makes it clear to future bidders that the winner will be only the one they need and no one else.

It is also noted that out of 19 tenders held by the Solomianskyi District Education Department in Kyiv  for current repairs in educational institutions, 18 of them were won by the same company within six  months.

«For many years, I have been looking with horror at everything that is happening in the Solomianskyi district of Kyiv, and in the whole city. Only those who have the highest price win tenders, and the  winners are the same. Instead of adhering to the policy of «fighting kickbacks» and taking all  exhaustive
measures to ensure transparent public procurement procedures and create conditions for open  competition among all bidders, which would reduce the cost of public procurement by 20-30%, the  opposite is happening. The customer carries out procurement, where the future «winner» prepares an estimate for himself with a clearly inflated price and scope of work, and gives him the opportunity to  indicate those works that could not be performed (so that competitors would not be financially profitable), which actually exceeded the amount allocated for this procurement and significantly reduced  the competition of other participants. (These facts were discovered at the customer’s facilities when fulfilling the requirements of the Site «Inspection», – the Kyiv resident made such conclusions in  his appeal not only to Active Citizens, but also to law enforcement agencies.

He notes that a similar situation can be observed in many districts of the capital: «They  deliberately overestimate the scope of work by 20-30% so that future participants will refuse such  tenders. As for the Solomenskyi district of the capital, it has the most questions about such tenders:

• DK 021: 2015 31120000-3 Generators (Gasoline generator) UA- 2022-12-09-015317-a for the  amount of UAH 3 680 000
• DK 021: 2015 31120000-3 Generators (Gasoline generator) ID: UA-2022-12-08-007323-a for the amount of UAH 969 000
• DK 021: 2015 – 39720000-5- Non- electric household appliances (Diesel guns) UA-2022-12-07-019804-a in the amount of UAH 1,108,166.67.

The complainant reported that the facts of illegal actions and decisions of the Education Department of  the Solomianskyi District State Administration in Kyiv were sent to the relevant public authorities exercising control in the field of public procurement. However, there is no information that the  organizers of tenders in this district have ever been brought to justice.

There were also responses from the deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration, V. Mondriyivskyi,  to the relevant appeals to the President. These responses did not contain a single  sentence on the substance of the appeal. Only two questions were asked:

• Who and how does the Solomyansky District State Administration in Kyiv make estimates?
• Who and how does the Solomyansky District State Administration in Kyiv prepare estimates for  the Department of Education, which are used for municipal procurement?
• «There are no answers and there will be no answers, because there are no estimators… The  question arises, what about the Law of Ukraine on Public Procurement:

Article 5. Principles of public procurement and non-discrimination of tenderers:
1) fair competition among tenderers;
2) maximum economy, efficiency and proportionality;
3) openness and transparency at all stages of procurement;
4) non-discrimination and equal treatment of tenderers;
5) objective and impartial determination of the winner of the procurement procedure/ simplified procurement;
6) prevention of corruption and abuse», – our reader writes.

He also wrote three appeals to the President of Ukraine regarding corruption schemes of officials in Solomyansky district of Kyiv, but the letters are sent for consideration to those who, in the  applicant’s opinion, are involved in corruption schemes.

«No matter who you ask, everyone understands, but (either) they can’t do anything or they  don’t want to do anything. The cynicism of officials who have not answered the questions posed in the appeals is striking. Even in their answers, they lie. They lie to me, they lie to  people, they lie to the President! I would like to draw your attention to the fact that since September 2023, Solomyansky District State Administration and the Department of  Education have started holding tenders for the preparation of estimates for repair work (the  cost of these works is from 40,000 to 70,000 UAH). This once again confirms that I am right  and that all tenders were held in collusion before the announcement», – our reader writes.

Among the procurements that raise questions are the newest ones:

Or the spending of UAH 2.3 million only for the development of design estimates for a radiation shelter  (!).

Or the current repair of ventilation in the simplest shelter for almost UAH 1.5 million.

There are also similar tenders with scandalous purchases of vegetable cutters and drums for bomb  shelters – Gymnastic equipment (Equipping civil defense facilities (simple shelters) of educational  institutions with gymnastic mats) for UAH 402 thousand.

As well as Gymnastic equipment (Arrangement of civil defense facilities (simple shelters) of educational  institutions with gymnastic mats) for the amount of UAH 2,548,369.20.

«This is happening at a difficult time when people are giving their last to help the Armed  Forces. Tell me, is there a force that will stop this arbitrariness, this corruption of these greedy officials? Such people should not be in power. This is a disgrace to our government!  There is a war going on! Such people should not be in power. There is no place in any position for such people who are trying to profit from everything without working, without without working, without helping, without doing their job!», – our reader said.

We remind you that a similar situation was revealed in the Dniprovskyi district of Kyiv, where the Department of Education wanted to spend millions of hryvnias under the guise of shelter needs on  drums and vegetable cutters. Active Citizens wrote about this in a series of publications:

Tenders for vegetable cutters and drums were issued by the former director of the municipal enterprise «Shelter for Animals», who was dismissed after animal rights activists insisted on her dismissal

«Instead of drums, we’ll spend the money on toilet paper»: the management of the Education Department does not want to stop questionable purchases

In the case of vegetable slicers and drums in the bomb shelter, the prosecutor’s office forgot about the main suspect