A monthly contract was signed for feeding children in kindergartens for ₴14.1 million in Mykolaiv

Meals in schools and kindergartens in Mykolaiv, archive photo: NikVesti

The Mykolaiv City Council's Department of Education has signed a one-month contract worth 14.1 million hryvnias with the Municipal Production Enterprise for the Organisation of Food Services. The funds will be used to provide meals for children in the city's kindergartens.

The relevant tender was published in the ProZorro public procurement system, according to NikVesti.

The procurement was carried out without using the electronic system. It is noted that the procurement had to be carried out urgently due to circumstances that did not allow for the standard terms of open tenders or the use of an electronic catalogue to be observed.

Photo from the ProZorro public procurement system

The contract stipulates that the contractor must provide meals in 44 kindergartens and the Mykolaiv special school for children with visual impairments for 14 million 186 thousand 061 hryvnias. The contractor will provide services for a month until 31 January.

It should be noted that this is due to the fact that on 16 December, the Municipal Production Enterprise for the Organisation of Catering in Mykolaiv Schools unilaterally terminated its contract with «Prossecco 8» due to violations of the meal delivery schedule and sanitary standards.

At the same time, the Department of Education is looking for contractors to provide catering services during the first half of the year in the city's schools and kindergartens. They plan to spend 186.6 million hryvnias on this. The tender submission process is currently underway, and contractors will be selected after 9 January.

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Catering for schoolchildren in Mykolaiv

On 9 December, NikVesti showed the process of providing some of the city's schools with meals prepared by the private company «Prossecco 8», which was awarded a catering contract by the municipal enterprise. Parents said that their children did not receive breakfast on Monday and that food was only delivered after lunch.

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

Vitalii Kim, a member of the Mykolaiv City Council and head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, responded to the scandal. After that, the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Mykolaiv region opened a criminal case regarding violations of the rules for preparing food for students in city schools.

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

In turn, Mykolaiv City Council deputy Tetiana Dombrovska called the scandal with the new catering for schoolchildren a failure of the authorities. She is demanding the dismissal of Deputy Mayor Anatolii Petrov and COP Director Petro Vasheniak.

Due to the detected signs of violation of the law in the field of public procurement, the State Audit Service has launched an investigation into the procurement of catering services for educational institutions in Mykolaiv.

It should be noted that the decision to engage a private contractor was made by the Mykolaiv City Council after public outcry over the quality of school meals. At the end of November, the municipal enterprise KOP selected the company «Prossecco 8», which will deliver food to some of the city's schools throughout December. During the open tender «PROSSECCO 8» was the only participant and winner of the competition for catering services. The price of the services was 14 million 279 thousand 658 hryvnias.

On the morning of 12 December, employees of the Strategic Investigations Department of the Mykolaiv region, together with the police, conducted searches at LLC «Prossecco 8», the Department of Education and a communal production enterprise for the organisation of catering.

The searches were conducted as part of criminal proceedings under Part 4 of Article 191 — appropriation or embezzlement of property on an especially large scale or committed by an organised group.

E. coli bacteria were found in the samples of food that the company «Prossecco 8» planned to feed to schoolchildren in Mykolaiv.

As it became known, on Tuesday, 23 December, the suspects in the scandal regarding the organisation of catering for schoolchildren in Mykolaiv were served with notices of suspicion.

The head of the company, Iryna Stoieva, was charged with violating the rules and regulations established to prevent infectious diseases, which could have led to their spread, as well as with attempted embezzlement of property through abuse of office during martial law on a particularly large scale (Part 1 of Article 325, Part 3 of Article 15, Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Petro Vasheniak has been notified of suspicion of a completed attempt to embezzle someone else's property by abusing his official position under martial law (Part 2 of Article 15, Part 4 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The searches began on the morning of 12 December. Photo: NikVesti

The searches began on the morning of 12 December. Photo: NikVesti

Who is the company that received ₴14 million for school meals connected to?

According to data from the YouControl system, the company «Prossecco 8», which was selected as a subcontractor, was registered in Mykolaiv in 2023 and has a statutory capital of one thousand hryvnias. The company's activities are multifaceted: they include providing mobile catering services, renting sports and leisure equipment, operating sports facilities, providing hairdressing and beauty salon services, and more. The owner of the company is Iryna Anatoliivna Stoieva.

NikVesti found out that Iryna Stoieva is also associated with another organisation — LLC «BBV 2021». The register of court decisions contains a 2023 court ruling on bringing her to administrative responsibility for violating the procedure established by law for conducting settlements in the field of trade, public catering and services. Iryna Stoieva is listed in the document as the manager of «BBV 2021». The case concerned unaccounted-for excess alcohol and cigarettes in a café in the Zavodskyi district of Mykolaiv.

The YouControl system indicates that the head of this Mykolaiv limited liability company «ББВ 2021» is Borys Berestnev, who is the son of the head of the «Proposal» faction in the Mykolaiv City Council and the head of the Inhulskyi District Administration, Anna Remennikova.

It should be noted that Anna Remennikova's family owns two popular restaurants in Mykolaiv: «Daily» and «Daily Sport». According to information obtained by the editorial staff of NikVesti, Iryna Stoieva works at one of them.

The decision to involve a private company in organising school meals was previously commented on by the mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych. In his Telegram channel, the mayor announced that the city authorities would check the effectiveness of the catering service within a month.

Press conference on the incident with school meals: key statements

Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych stated that they had known about the contractor's violations in the preparation and delivery of school meals as early as Monday, 8 December, but did not respond publicly because he was at a municipal forum that day.

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

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

In turn, the director of LLC «Prossecco 8» Iryna Stoieva, whose company was supposed to provide catering services for children in Mykolaiv schools, explained that on the first day, there was a production failure due to power outages.

According to Stoieva, the company experienced a force majeure situation. Due to the lack of electricity, the generator did not work and the equipment broke down.

In addition, she said that sanitary standards were violated by the cook himself, who decided to open the thermal box and stir the couscous in the open air. He has already been punished for this.