Bucha to wash $49.98m in home renovations

Spending on mysterious repairs to war-damaged houses in Bucha reaches UAH 50m // Collage KV

In recent months, the Bucha city council has ordered UAH 49.98 million worth of repairs to war-damaged houses in Bucha and the community’s villages. The contracts call for a variety of works, from repairing facades and roofs to replacing windows and doors. However, it is impossible to verify their progress and readiness of the public, as none of the published documents specify addresses of work. The city council explained this know-how by changes in the law, according to which the customer has the right not to publicize such information if it can bear risks for him or for the contractor. The Bucha MPs are not aware of such contracts. At the same time, the public has suspected that such selective disclosure of information may primarily carry corruption risks.

As the KC learnt from the data of public analytics module BI.Prozorro, from September 12 to November 3 this year, Bucha City Council signed 8 repair contracts without competitive bidding for the residential buildings in Bucha and its settlements. The total price of these contracts amounted to UAH 49.98 million.

Seven contracts have been signed for repairs of apartment houses in Bucha and one more contract has been signed for repairs of apartment houses in the territory of the municipality. The contracts envisage various types of work – repair of facades, roofs, replacement of windows and doors, interior finishing works. However, none of the published documents specify the addresses where the works will be carried out. Two of the contracts do not even specify when the work will be done, only that the contracts are valid until the end of this year.

Mystery repairs of war damaged houses in Bucha cost 50 million hryvnias.

The Bucha City Council chose the contractors without any tenders. All purchases are marked “Ukrainian Liberation War”. This means that they are held on the basis of the Cabinet of Ministers instruction from February 28, 2022, No. 169 on the implementation of defense and public procurement of goods, works and services in wartime conditions. To carry out these works, the Buchan authorities at their own discretion and without competition chose three contractors – entrepreneur Serhii Tsybulskyi, “Nidcom” LLC and “Investment and Construction Company “Bild Life” LLC.

The biggest amount, 67% or almost UAH 33.5m, was contracted to businessman Serhiy Tsybulskyy. Contracts were signed with Nidcom Ltd for 25% of the funds or UAH 12.5m, and contracts for the remaining 8% or UAH 3.95m were signed with Bild Life investment and construction company.

Recall that in September, when the first such contract was signed without an address, in response to a request of the CI, the Buchansky City Council explained that the address of the works in the published documents was not specified on the basis of paragraph 3.8 of Law of Ukraine from 16.08.2022 ¹ 2526-IX “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On public procurement” and other laws of Ukraine regarding the implementation of defense and public procurement for the duration of legal regime of martial law”.

According to this law, customers may not publish information about their location, the location of contractors and the place of supply of goods if the distribution of such information poses a security risk to the customer or suppliers.

Exactly how such information may harm who is concerned is not specified. At the same time, the city council noted that the work is being carried out in houses damaged as a result of Russian military aggression.

Cost of mysterious repairs to war-damaged houses in Bucha reaches 50m hryvnyas

The KV asked Bucha City Council deputies for a comment on such contracts, but none of the deputies we managed to talk to was aware of them. Nor were the elected officials able to explain how exactly the publication of the address of the works might harm the interests of their customer or contractor.

Oleg Kvashuk

“I know that there are procurements for repair works, I know about those 50 million hryvnias. But I have never heard about the fact that there are no specific addresses in the contracts. How this information can hurt someone, I do not know. But the legal department of the City Council monitors the current situation and signs contracts according to the current legislation. To date, the requirements for life are changing, and I think that if such a rule in the law was prescribed, then maybe there were some pre-conditions”, – commented the deputy of Buchan City Council Oleg Kvashuk (Batkivshchyna).

Tatiana Sorokina

“I cannot answer all your questions. But I can say in my district, on Borys Hmyrya Street, that now a contractor is coming to repair the facades of buildings 11/6 and 9. I haven’t seen the terms of the contract yet, so I don’t know who the contractor is. I don’t sign contracts; my job is only to safeguard the interests of my constituents. And if there are real requests for repairs, I emphasize them,” – said a member of the Bucha City Council Tatiana Sorokina (“Servant of the People”).

MP Irina Yarmolenko (“New Faces”) also has no information about such contracts.

At the same time, the public suspected that such selectivity in disclosure of information may carry corruption risks.

Viktor Barkholenko. The cost of mysterious repairs of war-damaged houses in Bucha reached 50 million hryvnias

I do not understand what risks may be born by publishing the address of the repair works. Here there are risks solely for the authorities to implement their corrupt schemes. So that people know less. This is done in order to bypass with the repair of the house of an ordinary man, and to do it instead of some sycophant of power or directly to the representative of power.

And MPs do not want to know about it, they do not need it. They are there mainly to solve their own issues. If the head says so, they never mind. Because everyone has a snout in his head and they try not to ask unnecessary questions.

The fact that it is spelled out on the legislative level means only one thing: everything happens on the state level just as it does on the local level. I would understand if this regulation applies to critical infrastructure facilities, but as for the private sector, it seems inappropriate,” says Viktor Barkholenko, a civic activist and a resident of Bucha.

About contractors in Bucha

According to Youcontrol analytical system, Mr. Tsybulskyy was registered as an individual entrepreneur in 1996 in Dubrovitsy, Rivne region. His main activity is preparatory work on construction sites.

As a result of participation in public procurement, entrepreneur Serhii Tsybulskyi signed 29 contracts worth UAH 56.49 million, including the current one. The largest customer is Buchansky City Council, which began working with him in September this year and during this time he managed to enter into 6 contracts for 42 million hryvnias. In addition to three current contracts for repair of houses in addresses unknown to the public, the Bucha City Council ordered carpentry and fixtures from Sergii Tsybulskyi. The remaining contracts were awarded to the entrepreneur for work in the Rivne region.

Nidcom Ltd was registered in 2017 in Kiev and now has registration in Boryspil. The registered capital is 430 thousand hryvnias. The main activity is construction of residential and non-residential premises. The founders are Alexander Shishkin (66%) and Leonid Dorosh (34%). The director is Maxim Lazarenko.

Leonid Dorosh is also a co-owner of Armabud Ltd, Wooden House LLC and Peregrine Rest LLC. It should be noted that one of Leonid Dorosh’s business partners at Sarsan Rest LLC, Oleksandr Chunyak. The man with the same first name is an aide to Verkhovna Rada MP Oleh Semynskyy (Servant of the People faction).

Until the end of 2019, among the co-founders of Nidcom LLC was Oleksandra Rynk, who, according to former adviser to the capital’s mayor Maksym Bakhmatov, was at the time a journalist and the fiancee of the son of the first deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration, Mykola Povoroznyk, Yuriy. Since early 2020, Alexandra Rynk left Nidcom, which, as Bakhmatov noted, happened after her marriage to Yuriy Povoroznyk, whose surname she took. Immediately after this information was made public by Bakhmatov, Mykola Povoroznyk said that he was suing him over “spreading false information”. Povoroznyk also said that he had asked the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) to promptly conduct a full and impartial investigation into the information spread on social networks and media about his family members. However, in early August, Maksym Bakhmatov said that a lawsuit filed by Mykola Povoroznyk or his representatives had not been filed with the court.

Nidcom Ltd started winning public procurements in May 2019. Since then, the company has won 38 contracts worth UAH 667.22m. The largest customers are metropolitan medical institutions. In particular, 7 contracts worth UAH 256.33m have been signed with Kyiv City Clinical Hospital No 1, with Kyiv City Clinical Hospital No 7 – 4 contracts for UAH 105.80 million, and 3 contracts for UAH 64.68 million with Alexandrovska Clinical Hospital.

The “Nidcom” company also actively obtains contracts for the performance of work in Bucha. In particular, 15 contracts worth UAH 167.5 million have been signed with the Bucha City Council and 2 contracts worth UAH 64.65 million with subordinate enterprises. In particular, the Bucha City Council and its Education Department ordered from Nidkom for UAH 69.96 million the construction of a recreation zone near the lake at Taras Shevchenko street in Myrotske village, for UAH 44.44 million the construction of a kindergarten at Lesya Ukrainka street in Bucha and for UAH 9.1 million the overhaul of Bucha school No 2.

Nidcom Ltd, commissioned by the Department of Regional Development of Kyiv Oblast Military Administration (KOMA), is repairing five multi-storey buildings in Bucha and two houses in the village of Blystavitsa in Bucha district damaged as a result of military operations.

Bild Life Investment and Construction Company LLC was registered in 2018 in Brovary, Kyiv Region. The share capital is UAH 1 thousand. The main activity is construction of residential and non-residential buildings. The founders and ultimate beneficiaries are Roman Snigir and Volodymyr Pyatenko (director).

Volodymyr Pyatenko previously headed the structural unit of Myroniv city party organisation “New Faces”, the head of which is ex-mayor of Irpen Volodymyr Karplyuk.

Contracts to repair the facades of apartment buildings in Bucha are the first experience of Bild Life Investment and Construction Company LLC’s victories in public procurements.

We remind you that the residents of Bucha were among the first in Kyivshchyna to hear and see with their own eyes the Rascal attack – the morning of February 24 Bucha residents awoke to the sounds of airfield bombing in neighbouring Gostomel. Russian troops on heavy equipment entered Buch on the morning of 27 February. The occupation of the town lasted 33 days – until 31 March.

Soon after the dismissal, Butch Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk said that 1,148 facilities were damaged during the military actions in the city, including 130 apartment buildings, 974 private ones and 44 social infrastructure facilities, i.e. medical facilities, schools, kindergartens and other institutions. At the end of September 2022, updated data were made public, according to which 372 private and 2 apartment buildings are not eligible for reconstruction.

** Nidcom Ltd (USREOU code: 41564138)

** “Bild Life” Investment and Construction Company LLC (USREOU code: 41969018)

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