Sienkevych on catering in Mykolaiv schools: we knew about force majeure, but we did not have the strength to respond publicly

A press conference on the incident with food in schools was held in Mykolaiv, photo: NikVesti

The mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, said that they knew about the contractor's violations in the preparation and delivery of school meals on Monday, 8 December, but did not publicly respond to it because he was at a municipal forum that day.

He announced this today, on 11 December, during a press conference on the incident with school meals, according to NikVesti.

As you know, on Monday, 8 December, a private company that received a catering contract from a municipal enterprise began to provide food to some of the city's schools. However, according to NikVesti, the children's parents reported that the children did not receive breakfast, and the food was delivered to some schools only in the afternoon.

«We decided to run a pilot project in the last month of this year. And, in fact, from Monday of this week, we launched a catering service, where a subcontractor was to provide food preparation and delivery services to those schools that do not have canteens or cafeterias. Then, on the first day, that is, on Monday, we faced the fact that there was a force majeure at the enterprise. Some of the food that was prepared was accepted, and some of it was because they had some events there, and they delayed the delivery of this food,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

Porridge for Mykolaiv schoolchildren was cooked outside in the rain, collage by NikVesti

According to the mayor, some schools refused to accept this food, and some of the prepared dishes were not sent from the enterprise at all «Prosecco 8».

«The director of our municipal enterprise (Petro Vashnyak, — note) went there (to the enterprise, — note) and testified that the food was not prepared on time, and, as we saw on the video, in a hurry. This food was not accepted. He informed the school directors about this. Some schools did not accept this food, some of the food did not even leave this enterprise because they were informed that it would not be accepted,» he said.

Sienkevych added that the situation improved on Tuesday, but not by «one hundred per cent».

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«The situation improved on Tuesday, but not by a hundred per cent. And on Tuesday, we all saw this video. We were aware of what was happening on the video on Monday, all this food was not accepted, and only the amount of food that was initially delivered on time was not counted, and the part of the food that we saw on the video was not accepted at all. We are not hiding anything,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

When asked by journalists why Oleksandr Sienkevych reacted to the incident only after the video was published NikVesti, the mayor explained that «physically did not have enough strength».

«We were proactive and stopped the situation. In fact, on Monday, I was at the municipal forum of the Association of Ukrainian Cities: the first day as a participant, the second day as a speaker. So, physically, I didn't have enough strength,» he said.

He added that the situation is currently being investigated by the prosecutor's office, police and the State Consumer Service.

Catering for Mykolaiv schoolchildren

On 9 December, NikVesti showed the process of providing some of the city's schools with food prepared by a private company «Prosekko 8», which received a catering contract from the municipal enterprise. Parents of the children said that they did not receive breakfast on Monday, and the food was delivered only in the afternoon.

The footage showed the company's employees cooking porridge outside under a tent in the rain.

Vitalii Kim, a deputy of the Mykolaiv City Council and head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration , responded to the scandal. After that, the Main Department of the National Police of Mykolaiv Oblast opened a criminal investigation into violations of the rules for preparing food for city schoolchildren.

Only in the evening did the mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, respond to the video. The mayor called the situation unacceptable and initiated an inspection.

In her turn, Tetiana Dombrovska, a member of the Mykolaiv City Council, called the scandal with the new catering for schoolchildren a failure of the authorities. She demanded the dismissal of Vice Mayor Anatolii Petrov and Director of the MPE-C Petro Vasheniak.

The State Audit Service has launched an audit of the procurement of catering services for Mykolaiv's educational institutions due to signs of violations of public procurement laws.

It should be noted that the Mykolaiv City Hall decided to engage a private contractor after a public outcry over the quality of school meals. At the end of November, the municipal enterprise MPE-C chose the company «Prosecco 8», which will deliver food to some of the city's schools in December. During the open tender «PROSSECCO 8» became the only participant and winner of the tender for catering services. The price of the services was 14 million 279 thousand 658.