Panchenko said that the prosecutor's office has been looking for the office of the company that wants to sort the waste for a week

Mykolaiv City Council deputy Fedir Panchenko. Archive photo NikVesti

Mykolaiv City Council deputy Fedir Panchenko told the head of «Waste to Energy Niko» that the regional prosecutor's office, which is conducting investigative actions in the case of the tender for the construction of a sorting line, cannot find the office of their company.

He voiced his opinion during a discussion of the issue of determining the subject of waste sorting, NikVesti.

Fedir Panchenko asked whether the company that won the tender for the construction of the waste sorting line had been investigated.

Advertising

Dmytro Honcharov, director of «Waste to Energy Niko», replied that no searches or seizures had been carried out at the company.

«I have a question for you, have the founders had any investigative actions or searches at the company's office?» asked Fedir Panchenko.

«There were no investigative actions,» Dmytro Honcharov replied.

«So they didn't even take your phone from you?» added Fedir Panchenko.

«No,» replied Dmytro Honcharov.

«It's just that the prosecutor's office reported that we had already searched all of us, and we didn't even go to the company,» added Panchenko.

The deputy added that he did not understand the logic of investigators who conducted searches in the city council but did not even visit the company that would directly implement the project.

«I'm telling you a story. We met with a representative of the regional prosecutor's office at the city council when they came. I asked them why they came to the city council to withdraw the draft decisions published on the website and whether they had already visited your office at the company. They said they hadn't come to you because they couldn't find you. By the way, I'm telling you that the regional prosecutor's office is looking for you, or your office can tell them, because they haven't been able to find you for a week. And we, you see, were the first to find you,» commented Panchenko.

«We'll have to go to a meeting then,» said Dmytro Honcharov.

As you know, on 21 August, the building of Mykolaiv City Council was searched. The next day, Vitalii Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, said that the tender to select a company to build the sorting line in Mykolaiv was conducted improperly and its terms were unfavourable to the community. He also added that Mykolaiv needs to build a modern sorting line, but not on the terms that are currently being proposed for approval by the city council.

Speaking to journalists, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych called the searches of the city council far-fetched and not constituting a crime. The department interpreted the mayor's statement as an attempt to divert attention from real violations and question the legality of the investigative actions.

Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko also reacted to this statement. He called these statements attempts by the managers to justify themselves.

Landfill near Mykolaiv

Back in 2020, in a commentary to NikVesti, the mayor of Mykolaiv said that the city's existing landfill would last for another 10 years, i.e. until 2030.

It is located on the territory of Vesnianske village council in Mykolaiv district. The landfill was put into operation in 1972 with a 50-year lifespan, i.e. until 2022. It is designed to dispose of 50 million cubic metres of waste.

The report on the strategic environmental assessment of the draft master plan for Mykolaiv, published in 2018, stated that the city's landfill capacity was 98% exhausted. Therefore, they added, it is imperative to build new modern waste sorting and recycling facilities, introduce separate waste collection, and increase the use of recycled materials.

On 20 May 2024, Mykolaiv selected a company to build a sorting line for solid waste processing. The winner of the tender was «Waste To Energy Niko».

In September 2024, the procedure for the operation of the household waste sorting line and the terms of the tender were agreed upon. It was reported that the sorting line will be able to process up to 70% of waste, and the remaining 30% will be buried. The project stipulates that the company that wins the tender will transfer at least 10% of its profits to the maintenance of the landfill.

The terms of the agreement include a 25-year period of cooperation. There were warnings in the city council that this was too long and could limit the community's flexibility. At the initiative of the chairman of the planning and budgetary commission of the city council, Fedir Panchenko, an alternative draft decision has already been developed — to refuse the agreement with «Waste To Energy Niko» for waste sorting. Earlier, in a commentary to NikVesti, «Waste To Energy Niko», which won the investment competition held by the city council, assured that such a system would not only reduce the burden on the city's landfill, but would also allow the city to save money, create new jobs and gain access to international «green» financing.