Mykolaiv Anti-Corruption Department approves overpriced tender for street lighting, for which utility company arrested

Lawyer Volodymyr Rudenko and his client Serhii Bezdolnyi. Photo: NikVesti

In September 2024, the Department of Internal Financial Control, Supervision and Anti-Corruption of Mykolaiv approved a tender for the purchase of 65 street lighting cabinets at an inflated price.

This was stated during a court hearing in the case of possible embezzlement of budget funds by the prosecutor of the Mykolaiv Regional Prosecutor's Office, Volodymyr Kuznetsov, NikVesti.

The tender for the purchase of ME «by the Self-Supporting Construction Mechanisation Section» was announced in autumn 2024. The amount and maximum value, according to the pre-trial investigation, was approved by the Anti-Corruption Department.

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«Bezdolnyi and Protsyshyn, in order to achieve the intention aimed at seizing local budget funds, in order to form a deliberately inflated expected value of the goods, drew up a deliberately false commercial offer document, which included information on the supply of goods, namely, majestic lighting cabinets in the amount of 65 pieces at a unit price of 90 thousand hryvnias for a total amount of 5 million 850 thousand hryvnias, and agreed the specified amount as the maximum expected value with the Department of Internal Financial Control, Supervision and Counteraction to Corruption,» said Volodymyr Kuznetsov.

LLC «NPK «Eastern European Energy Union» won the tender at a price of 5 million 395 thousand hryvnias, although two other companies with lower prices took part in the auction. They were subsequently rejected by the ME.

It is worth recalling that in August 2023, Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych ordered the fund managers to conduct tenders more transparently and inform the city council about their implementation. The mayor noted that monthly reports on the implementation of the order should be submitted to the Department of Internal Financial Control, Supervision and Anti-Corruption of the Mykolaiv City Council.

He later explained that the idea of the control is to create a single public database that will be used by budget managers when planning procurement.

Read also the article by NikVesti: «Everyone should be happy in the New Year». The court in the Bezdolny case heard dialogues between the utility company and a Lviv businessman.

Corruption in the procurement of street lighting for Mykolaiv

On 9 April, it became known that Serhii Bezdolnyi, who works for the municipal enterprise «Self-supporting Construction Mechanisation Section» (hereinafter referred to as the SCMS), and a businessman from Lviv region, Vasyl Protsyshyn, were notified of suspicion of misappropriation of budget funds. He is charged with an offence under Part 4 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. He faces a prison sentence of 5 to 8 years. In addition to working for the utility company, Serhii Bezdolnyi is the brother of Dmytro Bezdolnyi, Director of the Housing and Communal Services Department of Mykolaiv City Council.

According to law enforcement officers, during the purchase of 65 street lighting control cabinets worth over 5.3 million hryvnias, the budget of Mykolaiv lost almost 600,000 hryvnias due to the so-called «kickbacks» — 13% of the amount excluding VAT.

The money and documents that were seized. Photo: National Police

Money and documents that were seized. Photo: National Police

Money and documents that were seized. Photo: National Police

The director of the Mykolaiv Housing and Communal Services Department, Dmytro Bezdolnyi, previously said in a comment to NikVesti that he was considering resigning from his position for the duration of the investigation due to the suspicion served on his relative. It is worth noting that the wife of the director of Mykolaiv's housing and communal services department also works for the utility company where his brother is suspected of corruption.

The mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, promised to cooperate with the investigation in the case of corruption in street lighting.

On 15 April, Vitovskyi District Court of Mykolaiv imposed a pre-trial restraint on suspected corrupt utility worker Serhii Bezdolnyi in the form of arrest with the possibility of bail in the amount of over 4.9 million hryvnias.

The court also ruled to compulsorily bring suspect Vasyl Protsyshyn to the court hearing.