Reconstruction projects for 4 buildings in Mykolaiv will be ordered twice: Why did this happen and how will the authorities avoid duplication?

Mykolaiv is one of five cities in Ukraine that will receive money from the World Bank for reconstruction projects. We wrote in more detail about how 150 million hryvnias was decided to be spent on creating projects for the reconstruction of 54 buildings and the surrounding area in our article: «Reconstruction or just documents».

However, it turned out that the list of these 54 houses included at least four addresses for which design and estimate documents had already been ordered in 2023-2024, i.e., the city budget had already been spent.

Now the money for design (drawings, estimates, illustrations, documentation, etc.) at these addresses will be spent again. What will be the difference between these projects? NikVesti decided to find out why this happened and ask the Mykolaiv authorities how they will avoid duplication and how they will make sure that the same expenses are not paid twice.

How four buildings were re-added to the design list

The World Bank-funded initiative that Mykolaiv has joined is called «HOPE: Housing Repairs for Empowerment». It includes 21 plots (clusters) with 54 multi-storey buildings in Mykolaiv that were damaged as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

The design will not be done building by building, but in clusters, meaning that architects and designers will take into account the surrounding infrastructure, landscaping, etc.

Last time, we did not publish the addresses of the buildings included in the project «HOPE». The editorial team still does not see the need to publish a list with addresses, as this may confuse the residents of these houses and disrupt their sense of security. However, for these 4 buildings, where design and estimate documentation for reconstruction has already been developed, the city council has announced information about this openly on public procurement sites. The total amount is:

• 556 thousand hryvnias — Yevheniia Lohinova, 12/2 (formerly Krylova Street) in Zavodskyi district
• 988 thousand hryvnias — 32 Admiralska Street in the Central district
• 329 thousand hryvnias — 63 Raiduzhna Street in Korabelnyi district
• 168 thousand hryvnias — 61 Vokzalna Street, also in Korabelnyi district

The Department of Housing and Communal Services of Mykolaiv replied that the houses were selected «without involving the human factor». That is, the decision for which building to develop a reconstruction project and for which not was made by a computer, not by officials.

In total, about 300 houses in five cities were selected: Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Bucha, Makariv, and Izium, and then excluded the smallest ones, forming clusters of 200 buildings, including a list of 54 high-rise buildings in Mykolaiv.

«The issue of the presence or absence of project documentation did not matter, because according to the terms, the project documentation must be developed in accordance with the rules and standards of the World Bank, and if the customer (i.e. the Mykolaiv City Council) has developed project documentation, the latter can be used only as possible options for making certain project decisions», said Ihor Nabatov, First Deputy Director of the Department of Housing and Communal Services.

That is, in fact, the department says that the projects of these four houses already developed at the expense of the city budget may be taken into account when developing repeated projects, but under «HOPE», or they may not. The key word here is «may».

We are talking about design services for which the local budget paid a total of about 2 million hryvnias, but they do not have a decisive impact now because they were not carried out according to World Bank rules.

The most costly expenditure was the design of the reconstruction of the building at 32 Admiralska Street, which was damaged by a missile attack in July 2023. After the outbreak of full-scale war, most of the apartments on Admiralska were empty: a nearby airstrike destroyed the «Inhul» hotel, and residents feared repeated attacks.

The Mykolaiv Housing and Communal Services Department has already paid over 900,000 hryvnias to «ARCH DESIGN» for architectural, engineering and planning services, geodetic surveys, technical inspections, etc.

According to the contract, the reconstruction project for this building will be ready by 15 November.

But implementation is questionable, as we previously quoted the Department of Housing and Communal Services (DHCS): «It can be used as a possible option for making certain design decisions». Translated from the official's words, this means that the DHCS will still order another project for the reconstruction of the building at 32 Admiralska as part of a large cluster, and money will be spent again, although this time from the World Bank.

The Mykolaiv Department of Housing and Communal Services insists that they could not influence the results of the selection: «It was processed through DREAM, the State Digital Recovery Ecosystem, using transparent criteria and a special geo-tool, the Suitability Tool from City Planning Labs, recommended by the World Bank. This allowed for an objective assessment and the formation of clusters based on location, building condition, security, communications, and other factors».

Everything happened in three stages:

• I. Analytical. The Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine analysed the data from the Register of Damaged and Destroyed Property, selecting only apartment buildings with damage ranging from 21 to 80%. Buildings with more than 80% damage were not included in the list, as they are recommended to be dismantled. This analysis left about 246 buildings in the database in Mykolaiv.
• II. Cluster approach. We combined the houses standing next to each other into single plots so that the adjacent infrastructure — yards, roads, communications — could be restored simultaneously. As a result, 74 houses from Mykolaiv were included in the clusters.
• III. Final stage. We sorted them by area, excluded the smallest houses and approved the final list.

Two more houses participating in the World Bank programme are located in the Korabelnyi district on Raiduzhna and Vokzalna streets opposite each other. Almost half a million hryvnias were spent from the city budget to develop projects for their reconstruction. They were damaged as a result of the shelling of Mykolaiv on 25 September 2022.

In 2023, the housing and communal services department paid 329,000 hryvnias to private entrepreneur Serhii Antonov for a project to overhaul a house on Raiduzhna Street and 168,000 hryvnias to private entrepreneur Olha Voronina for a house on Vokzalna Street.

The latter even signed a contract for 7.7 million hryvnias for major repairs under the project and managed to use 826 thousand hryvnias in 2024 for stabilisation and emergency work (dismantling, replacing windows, doors, restoring interior partitions and laying floors).

Further performance of the contract was effectively suspended, and in 2025, the housing office did not pay the contractor, LLC «YUL-Stroi», a single hryvnia.

Thus, on the one hand, double funding was avoided, but on the other hand, it effectively stopped the reconstruction of the building, which is now included in another reconstruction programme.

From design to reconstruction: how to avoid double funding?

Another building that already has a project in place is located at 12/2 Yevheniia Lohinova (formerly Krylova Street) in Zavodskyi district. 661 thousand hryvnias was spent on documentation for its restoration. And the situation with it is different from the previous three.

First, new balconies were installed for the residents at the expense of the Danish government, and six months ago, in May 2024, the adjacent territory was completed: tile walkways were laid, parking spaces were arranged, the road was asphalted, and bins and benches were installed.

After that, the Department of Housing and Communal Services announced a tender to find a contractor to rebuild the apartment block. The list of works includes: filling cracks in the walls with cement, reinforcing the reinforced concrete wall panel, making partitions in three apartments, making cornices and balconies, repairing the roof, interior and exterior decoration, installing windows, etc.

20 million hryvnias is allocated for these works. The contractor has been restoring the apartment block for several months now. Specialised equipment is now parked around the building, the building has been fenced off and workers are working there. All work should be completed in two months — by 15 December 2025.

At the same time, this house is also part of the World Bank's «HOPE» project, so we asked the Department of Housing and Communal Services how they will avoid duplicating funding for the same work from different sources.

«Given the fact that some of the work was carried out using other mechanisms (assistance from the Kingdom of Denmark, city budget funds, assistance from other international organisations, etc.), this part will certainly not be included as requiring implementation», wrote Ihor Nabatov, First Deputy Director of the State Housing Committee, in his response.

He admits that this building no longer needs «stabilisation» measures. There is also no need to improve the adjacent territory.

«At the same time, the issues of energy efficiency measures» remain relevant,» explained the housing office.

The cost of reconstruction

As you can see, each house has a different situation, technical condition and initial conditions. At the same time, there is 150.3 million hryvnias for the reconstruction of 54 high-rise buildings within the clusters. How will they be distributed? Who and how will form the cost of further design?

As of now, the Department of Housing and Communal Services cannot name the specific cost of developing design and estimate documentation, since the allocation of funding was not based on the cost of a particular building, but by averaging the cost for each of the almost 200 participants in the «HOPE» programme in five cities of Ukraine.

At the first stage, the Government distributed a subvention of 540 million hryvnias between Mykolaiv, Bucha, Makariv, Izium and Zaporizhzhia.

On average, 150 million hryvnias was allocated for 54 houses, which is 2.7 million each.

In recent years, NikVesti has not been able to find an example of the Mykolaiv city authorities ordering a multi-storey reconstruction project for a similar amount. The most expensive was the aforementioned project at 32 Admiralska Street for almost 1 million hryvnias.

When asked why the average amount per house is significantly higher than what was previously spent from the local budget, the housing office explains the complexity of the project.

«This is due to the fact that the project documentation includes «stabilisation» measures for the building, as well as energy efficiency measures and landscaping. In addition, the designers who develop the design documentation within the project actually also perform the role of a consulting engineer, even partially perform the usual function of the construction customer in terms of forming tender documentation for the search for a contractor), that is, the scope of responsibilities is much higher than the usual requirements of Ukrainian legislation», says the first deputy of the State Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine Ihor Nabatov.

It should also be noted that there will be no traditional tenders in the system «Prozorro» for these houses (clusters). The contractor will be selected in accordance with the World Bank's procurement rules, and the relevant announcements will be published on the website of the Department of Housing and Communal Services.

What do we have in the end? The World Bank's pilot project «HOPE», in which houses are selected for reconstruction by a «computer», the city authorities explain that they hardly interfere in the process, and if the list includes objects with completed projects or even partially completed work, the question arises: who was supposed to check it?

Such cases make us wonder whether the technological approach really makes the process clear and transparent, and whether a new digital format always helps to avoid old problems.

Yuliia Boichenko, NikVesti