The businessman declared corruption in the Mykolaiv region at the billion-dollar tender for the repair of the water supply

Mykolaiv businessman, head of ViK Tekhnolohii company Oleksandr Zhak stated about corruption in the Mykolaiv region related to purchases for the reconstruction of the water pipeline,

This is evidenced by Oleksandr Zhak's Facebook post, which the businessman made on Sunday, October 29.

As you know, the publication «Nashi Hroshi» analyzed the purchases of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration for the reconstruction of the water supply in Mykolaiv with a total cost of 836 million hryvnias, and stated that the prices were inflated by 2-3 times. Reacting to this publication, the head of Mykolayiv RMA Vitalii Kim said that he would account for every penny spent and urged «do not believe bad news». Commenting on this investigation, the Department of Urban Planning, Architecture, Capital Construction and Support of Development Projects of RMA stated that the prices indicated in the tender fully correspond to reality.

However, three weeks ago, the head of the Mykolaiv region held a briefing, at which he thanked the journalists and confirmed the fact that the contractor had inflated the price. He noted that during the analysis of the cost, it was found that the contractor included inflation in the prices not only this year, but also the next, and therefore the amount of the tender will decrease.

Businessman Oleksandr Zhak, commenting on this news of «NikVesti» after the briefing, told his story about the repair of the waterworks in Mykolaiv.

According to him, the story began in the spring of 2022, when the government allocated 56 million hryvnias to help CE Mykolaivvodokanal.

«The funds first went to RMA, that is, RMA actually controlled them. They decided to spend on the reconstruction of sewage treatment plant pipelines (WTP) in three areas (10, 10 and 36 million), the general contractor is ViK Tekhnolohii LLC. But money can be received based on the fact of completed works and the availability of a project with expertise. Therefore, it was necessary to build with one's own funds, and only after a few months to receive the earnings. Already at the end of June, there were conversations that «Zhak won't back down — he needs to be appointed a general contractor», Haydarzhi (deputy head of Mykolaiv RMA Valentyn Haydarzhi, — note) confirmed this. They wanted to appoint Zhendubaiev as the new general contractor. I sent the marauders. Everything calmed down, we worked investing our funds. It is interesting that when designing, in agreement with the Customer, knowing about the possibility of a sharp drop of the hryvnia, we included in the project price overestimation by +40%. The agreement was that the prices in the acts will be proportional to the euro exchange rate...everything is fair», — Oleksandr Zhak wrote.

Oleksandr Zhak, head of ViK Technologies, photo from Facebook

After the project passed the examination, the ViK Tekhnolohii company began the installation of pipelines and shut-off valves. However, the businessman noted, after his company had already spent about 15 million hryvnias on materials and equipment, carried out disassembly and assembly, Mykolaiv RMA signed a general contracting agreement with Mykolaivmiskbud, the owner of which is Mykhailo Zhendubaiev.

«It's a throwaway. They thought that ViK would «lie down» under them, but no. We handed over the completed work on dismantling old pipelines to Vodokanal as charitable assistance (about 750 thousand hryvnias), dismantled new pipelines, took away all purchased materials (although they are not very liquid, with peculiarities). The new general contractor quickly brought the documents for dismantling... but he was answered: «Zhak has already presented these works.» Not a drop of humanity... Next, the acts were signed with the maximum prices, according to the inflated prices in the project!», — Oleksandr Zhak wrote.

He went on to write about how the contracts for the design of the reconstruction of the water main were awarded to contractors without an open competition, dividing the three plots into 12 projects in such a way that the amount of each did not exceed 1.5 million hryvnias, which made it possible to avoid the competition.

Oleksand Zhak noted that last fall, a decision was made to provide Mykolaiv with 1.2 billion hryvnias for the reconstruction of water mains.

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«Design contracts were signed without a tender or an auction. How did they do that? According to the «correct request» from RMA, Vodokanal transfers the water pipes divided into pieces, in such pieces that the design cost of one piece is no more than 1.5 million hryvnias (more than 1.5 million hryvnias — a tender must be held). In this way, instead of three objects, there are 12. In this way, they started their offices (without experience in designing water mains) for design work... their designers — their prices for materials», — Oleksandr Jacques wrote.

After that, tenders for the reconstruction of the water main were announced. From the very beginning, there was a requirement in the tender documentation that the contractor should transfer 5% of the contract amount to the customer's account as a performance guarantee, but at the last moment this requirement was canceled and replaced by another: if the participant gives a discount of more than 5 % (for some objects — 8%), then he must provide letters of guarantee from manufacturers, or dealers, or distributors for the price, quantity and delivery terms.

«In the tender documentation, everything was simple at first, except for one requirement — the contractor must transfer 5% of the contract amount to the Customer's account as a guarantee of work performance. But we had time to prepare, collected the necessary funds. At the last moment, the Customer makes changes to the documentation — cancels the requirement for a performance guarantee (apparently «their» contractors could not collect 60 million hryvnias). But! Introduces a new «chip» — of the «anti-dumping» type, if the participant gives a discount of more than 5% (for some objects — 8%), then he must provide letters of guarantee from manufacturers, or dealers, or distributors for the price, quantity and delivery terms. It is not realistic to do this pile of letters, especially since there are 4 days left until the documents are uploaded. The first to download documents with a 5% discount will be the winner. And here the looters are the first, everything is clear», — Oleksandr Zhak wrote.

He noted that the ViK Tekhnolohii company took part in all three tenders, knowing that it would appeal to the Antimonopoly Committee (AMCU).

«But the Customer objected to the mechanisms that our estimators remove if they are not used. It is difficult to prove to Antimonopoly, that is why we followed the «100 percent path» — to show Antimonopoly that the documentation of the winners does not meet the requirements of the tender documentation», — the businessman wrote.

ViK Tekhnolohii company filed three complaints with the AMCU. Two — satisfied, regarding the third — the entrepreneur will appeal to the court.

«One tender has already been canceled, the second is on the way. For example, according to the tender, which was canceled, the winner was with a price of 129 million hryvnias, and we have 89 million hryvnias, which is 2,000 drones. I know that our colleagues were offered these tenders... with a 50% kickback, but then they reduced it to 30%. That is why only three offices came — Mykolaivmiskbud (Zhendubaeva), Gazvodmontazh (a small company that has almost no machinery and equipment) and Odessa Odesaspecenerho», — wrote Oleksandr Zhak.

What about the water in Mykolaiv?

Back in April 2022, Russian troops destroyed the water pipeline through which Mykolaiv received drinking water.

Previously, «NikVesti» wrote that the water in the taps of Mykolaiv residents is dangerous for consumption, as it contains enterococci, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, toxic elements, has an increased content of chlorides, sulfates, dry residue, etc.

More information about the dangers of using «technical» water for citizens and what awaits the city's residents in the future can be found in the «Mykolaiv. The city that holds the defense of the south suffers from thirst».

In March 2023, the director of Mykolaivvodokanal, Borys Dudenko, announced the possible threat of destruction of the sewage system due to the influence of salt water. According to him, over the past year, the water utility has eliminated more than 1,000 leaks, and after the start of the supply of salty water, the number of accidents per day has increased to 10-15 times. In addition, concrete sewer collectors also begin to degrade.

The European Investment Bank has approved additional credit financing of 20 million euros to improve water supply and drainage in Mykolaiv within the framework of the Municipal Infrastructure Development Program of Ukraine.

Earlier it was reported that 1.2 billion hryvnias are going to be allocated from the state budget for the restoration of the water supply system in Mykolaiv. Such a step is necessary for the city, since salt water corrodes the pipes and over time the entire water supply system will have to be changed in Mykolaiv.

At the same time, the head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, Vitalii Kim, considers his team's decision to supply the city with salty technical water from the Southern Bug to be the right one after last April, as a result of Russian shelling, the water main from the Dnipro River was damaged.

The Vodokanal is considering six options for arranging a new water intake site to provide Mykolaiv with drinking water.

As you know, the search for an alternative source of water intake began in the summer of last year. At that time, the general director of the water utility Borys Dudenko talked about only a few options, where to get the amount of water necessary to fill the water supply system of our city and its 24-hour operation.

The first option is to go higher along the channel of the Southern Bug, choose a place with high-quality fresh water, build a water intake station there, lay a pipeline to Mykolaiv.

The second is to continue pumping water from the Dnipro-Bug estuary, but to install industrial-scale reverse osmosis units. Such installations are very energy-consuming.

On August 19, the department of urban planning, architecture, capital construction and support of development projects of Mykolaiv RMA announced tenders for the reconstruction of 12 sections of water mains damaged by salt water in different areas of the city for a total amount of 1 billion 348 million hryvnias.

Recently, the head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, Vitalii Kim, announced the possible deterioration of water quality in the taps of Mykolaiv residents by the end of 2023.

At the same time, he believes that currently the water from the taps in Mykolaiv, which the townspeople consider technical, is better in terms of quality than «most water in Europe».