Mykolaiv regional council education committee discusses food in schools

Screenshot of the commission meeting

At a meeting of the Mykolaiv Regional Council's Standing Committee on Education, Culture and Science, deputies considered the scandalous situation with catering in city schools and expressed serious concern about the quality of children's meals.

The chairman of the committee, Yevhen Horburov, noted that the city authorities could not provide any explanations.

Therefore, he suggested that we contact the head of Mykolaiv's regional administration, Vitaliy Kim, and law enforcement agencies to open a case on the facts of poor quality food.

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«Over the past two days, I have spoken to some school principals who receive this food about two hours late. Although we have seen on the video what the food looks like and what kind of food it is... It is unacceptable that we are feeding our children this kind of food today. You have already seen a lot of footage of people cooking in the open air, pigeons flying around, food being cooked on fires. Do these people who cook have health certificates? And in general, who are these people who cook this food, God forbid that we would be spared an outbreak of any disease», said Yevhen Horburov.

He stressed that the commission cannot stand aside, and the information published in the media is already enough for law enforcement to conduct an inspection.

«We have received the information and believe that it is enough to appeal to the law enforcement agencies to conduct appropriate checks within their powers. I think the appeal will be considered, and I think it will not be the only one», added Denys Andreiev, deputy chairman of the Mykolaiv Regional Council.

However, following the discussion, the commission did not put this proposal to a vote.

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 «Prosecco 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 Region 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 hryvnias.