The Mykolayiv RMA responded to the businessman's statement about corruption in the billion-dollar waterworks repair tender: «The tenders were in accordance with the law»

The Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration reacted to the statement of a local businessman, head of the «ViK Technolohii» company Oleksandr Zhak about corruption in the region related to purchases for the reconstruction of a water pipeline.

The relevant information is published on the official Facebook page of Mykolayiv RMA.

It was reported there that the total amount of construction and installation works for the reconstruction of water mains in Mykolaiv, according to the results of the bidding, is 1 billion 90 million 309 thousand hryvnias. These works are planned to be carried out in 2023-2024.

«Trading took place in accordance with the requirements of the current legislation, with compliance with all prescribed procedures. The customer has no legal grounds not to sign the contract with the winner (despite the inflated prices in the submitted estimates)», — the RMA reported, adding that the prices for materials were «approximately the same» for all bidders.

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At the same time, they emphasize, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine reviewed the results of three out of twelve tenders: «On all complaints, the commission of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine refused to satisfy them in the part of overpricing».

Further, the regional administration reported that the information about the allocation of 56 million hryvnias from the state budget to Mykolayiv RMA «does not correspond to reality».

«The military administration did not conclude agreements and did not sign acts regarding the use of these funds», — the RMA explained, adding that the Ministry of Regions directed these funds to «Mykolaivvodokanal» to support the technological complex of the city's water treatment facilities, as well as other measures to restore centralized water supply.

The RMA also informed that the decision to reconstruct exactly 12 sections of the main water pipelines of Mykolaiv was proposed by «Mykolaivvodokanal» based on the results of the meetings held in January-February 2023. It is about diameters of 500, 600 and 1000 mm (in particular duiker) with a total length of about 22 kilometers, it was specified there.

«Given that the issue of allocation of funds from the state budget was not adopted at the time of the decision on reconstruction, the reconstruction of water pipelines for 12 projects was aimed at ensuring the possibility of step-by-step commissioning of various areas, allowed to involve a larger number of designers in the design works and reduce the deadlines development of PCD with expertise. It also reduces the risks of non-fulfilment of contractual obligations by individual contracting organizations and, in the event of their failure, to attract new organizations without interrupting work on other areas», — the RMA explained.

The regional administration added that the Mykolaiv City Council decided to transfer the functions of the customer of the project and construction works to the Department of Town Planning, Architecture and Capital Construction of the Mykolaiv Oblast, as well as to allocate 21.4 million hryvnias of subvention for the development of the project with expertise.

There it was emphasized that the Department monitored the proposals of eight designers: «Preference was given to proposals with the lowest regulatory coefficient of project performance».

As an example, RMA cited a tender for the construction of a project for the reconstruction of a water main along Bohoyavlenskyi Avenue, from 2nd Sichova Street to Prymiska Street. Then, they say, the contract was concluded for the amount of 1.4 million hryvnias, instead of the amount of 4.9 million hryvnias that the designer could set.

«According to the results of the conducted monitoring, direct contracts were concluded with four project organizations for the implementation of PCD with expertise, the relevant information was published on the Prozorro resource», — the RMA added.

The Mykolayiv RMA also commented on the information regarding the introduction of changes to the tender documentation during the offer acceptance period. Referring to Clause 54 of Cabinet Resolution No. 1178, it was reported that this is not a violation.

«In the case of changes to the tender documentation, the deadline for submitting tenders is extended by the customer in the electronic procurement system, namely in the announcement of open tenders in such a way that from the moment of making changes to the tender documentation to the end of the deadline for submitting tenders, at least four days Thus, the Customer acted within the limits of his powers and the applicable legislation», — RMA reported and added that no participant had received any comments regarding these changes.

The decision to reject the offer of the participant LLC «ViK Technolohii» in the Mykolayiv RMA was explained by the inconsistency of the technical documentation of the enterprise with the requirements of the tender documentation.

«According to the tender documentation, the participant uploaded letters of guarantee in which it was stated that he confirmed the compliance of his offer with the technical, qualitative and quantitative characteristics and requirements of the tender documentation.

However, for all three tenders in which the participant participated, technical documentation (calculations) were provided, in which no less than six inconsistencies were found in accordance with the requirements of the tender documentation. All these inconsistencies do not apply to the part of the documentation that specifies the provision of detailed price justification documents («anti-dumping»). That is, the claim of the participant that it was the short period of submission of documents for justifying the price that influenced the decision to reject his tender offer is not true», — the RMA reported.

They also added that the bidder did send three complaints to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, two of which were partially satisfied, and one more was rejected.

«According to the conclusions of the AMCU, in all three cases, the complainant did not prove and did not document that the value of the material resources specified by the winner in the estimates exceeds the approximate price level of the domestic market of Ukraine. The complainant also did not prove the inconsistency of the estimate provided by the winner with the «Guidelines on determining the cost of construction» norms», — informed the RMA.

According to the regional administration, the winner of one of the tenders must correct the inconsistencies identified by the AMCU: «Since the AMCU canceled the customer's decision, due to agreement with the position of the complainant, noting that the customer was obliged to provide 24 hours to correct errors, the bidder will be given these 24 hours to correct errors».

«In addition, for one of the tenders, the Department agrees with the decision of the AMCU to cancel the decision to determine the winner. However, as noted above, it does not concern pricing, but refers to issues of compliance of resources with the position specified in the tender documentation», — the message reads.

At the same time, they emphasized that at the beginning of the bidding, the participant of ViK Technolohii LLC came out with an offer of 128.1 million hryvnias, and already during the bidding he offered 89.6 million hryvnias.

«It is not known why the participant lowered his price offer so much during the Department's tender procedure», — they added.

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».