Mykolaiv DHCS paid for paving slabs knowing that they did not meet the standards

Repair of the sidewalk on Tsentralnyi Avenue by Blagoustriy-NK, November 2021, photo by the Mykolaiv Housing and Communal Services Department

The Department of Internal Financial Control, Supervision and Anti-Corruption of Mykolaiv has reported cases of paving slabs being laid whose strength is almost three times less than the established standards.

According to the department's Facebook page, despite the fact that the Department of Housing and Communal Services was aware of the non-compliance, the contractors signed the certificates of completion and transferred funds.

The Anti-Corruption Department of Mykolaiv City Hall warned about the non-compliance of the tiles with the standards, a screenshot of the Facebook post

«Today we want to talk about paving slabs. We would like to point out that we have nothing against the tiles that were laid before the full-scale war. But there is one caveat: the tiles must be of high quality. One of the important parameters of tiles is their strength. The necessary strength ensures that the tiles will not crumble when a car drives onto the pavement or simply from old age in a year or two. That is why there is a strength standard for tiles laid on sidewalks in public places that must withstand a certain load», the statement said.

Appeal of the Department of Internal Financial Control to Natalia Osetska, Deputy Director of the Department of Housing and Communal Services, regarding improper performance of sidewalk repair work, photo from the Department's Facebook

Appeal of the Internal Financial Control Department to Natalia Osetska, Deputy Director of the Housing and Communal Services Department, regarding improper performance of sidewalk repair works, photo from the Department's Facebook

The post notes that the department has officially notified the contractors of the work. However, according to their data, did not make any claims to the contractors, and instead «the acts of completion were signed, and the funds were transferred in accordance with the contract — as for the quality of the repair».

«So, during the inspections, it turned out that at some facilities, the tiles were almost three times weaker in strength than the standards? As is customary in such cases, we notified the customer of the work. And what do you think happened? Did they issue a claim to the contractors and force them to relay the tiles? You guessed it. Nothing. That's why the new structure of the city council has no place for the anti-corruption department. We are inconvenient; we prevent them from «using» (looting) the budget», they added.

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The Anti-Corruption Department supplemented its publication with scanned copies of three letters signed by Director Andrii Yermolaiev and addressed to Deputy Director of Mykolaiv's Housing and Utilities Department Nataliia Osetska regarding the ongoing repair of sidewalks in several locations:

• Tsentralnyi Avenue from General Karpenko Street to the Central City Stadium for 489 thousand hryvnias, the work was carried out in 2021 by the company «Ecotoptrans»;
• Nikolska Street (now Vadyma Blahovisnoho Street, — note) from Inzhenerna Street to Hromadska Street (even side) for UAH 724 thousand, the works were performed in 2021 by «Ukrtim»;
• Myru Avenue from Novozavodska Street to Kosmonavtiv Street (odd side) for 4.6 million hryvnias, the works were performed in 2020 by «Blahoustrii-NK».

According to the YouControl system, the company «Blahoustrii-NK» received more than 27 million from the budget in 2019-2020: these are mainly purchases by the Mykolaiv Housing and Communal Services Department. In 2022, it was reported that the owner of the company, Yurii Yakovenko, was put on the wanted list because he was hiding from pre-trial investigation authorities. Today, according to the registers, the company's owner is Mykola Hrytsuniak. The Antimonopoly Committee has repeatedly detected signs of collusion in tenders involving this company, and in 2024, following an investigation by journalists, fined the company for collusion in procurement.

Publication about the repair of the sidewalk near the city stadium, screenshot from the Mykolaiv City Council website

Repair of the sidewalk on Tsentralnyi Avenue, November 2021, photo by the Mykolaiv Housing and Communal Services Department

Repair of the sidewalk on Tsentralnyi Avenue, November 2021, photo by the Mykolaiv Department of Housing and Communal Services

Repair of the sidewalk on Tsentralnyi Avenue, November 2021, photo by the Mykolaiv Housing and Communal Services Department

As for the company «Ecotoptrans», in 2022, the prosecutor's office announced a suspicion to the head of the company, Iryna Chernous, in the case of possible misappropriation of 250,000 hryvnias during the repair of a sidewalk in the Namyv neighbourhood. This was reported by the Investigative Journalism Centre «Nikcenter». At the time, the publication reported that the company, according to the register of court decisions, was involved in a case of possible embezzlement and misappropriation of budget funds allocated for the arrangement of parks, squares and repair of paving slabs, which were commissioned by the Housing and Communal Services Department of the Mykolaiv City Council.

The Anti-Corruption Department warned of corruption risks in the reconstruction of Soborna Square

Recently, on 12 November, the Department of Internal Financial Control, Supervision and Counteraction to Corruption announced that it would start publishing public reports on its activities.

The department decided to start with the case of budgetary losses during the reconstruction of Soborna Square. They published a letter addressed personally to the then Director of the Department of Housing and Communal Services, Serhii Koreniev, who is now the Deputy Mayor of Mykolaiv. The anti-corruption department claims that in 2019, they drew attention to the inflated cost of material resources.

The document states that the cost of natural sand is 810.09 hryvnias per m³ (selling price is 500 hryvnias, transport component is 294.21 hryvnias, procurement and storage costs are 15.88 hryvnias), while the same sand can be ordered online for 400 hryvnias per tonne. It is also pointed out that the cost of ball valves is overestimated, as they cost 343.72 hryvnias per piece under the contract, while they can be purchased on the Internet for 66.60-83.22 hryvnias per piece.