The SSU is investigating a conspiracy of Odesa officials with the company "Rostdorstroy": falsification of tenders worth 200 million hryvnias

The SSU is investigating a conspiracy of Odesa officials with the company "Rostdorstroy": falsification of tenders worth 200 million hryvnias

The SSU is investigating a potential collusion between officials of the Odesa City Council’s municipal enterprise "City Roads" and the company "Rostdorstroy". Investigators are trying to determine whether there were any document falsifications during the execution of at least 13 tenders for road surface restoration following emergency repair of heating networks amounting to over 200 million hryvnias.

The SSU believes that during 2023–2024, "Rostdorstroy" consistently won tenders for road repairs in Odesa without competition. The company likely received a priority in procurements due to facilitation from the management of the municipal enterprise (Vadym Todiychuk), which acted as the client for the work.

In particular, one of these procurements valued at 9.98 million hryvnias, conducted at the beginning of 2023, is mentioned in a court ruling. It is known that this likely refers to the procurement of public improvement services announced by the municipal enterprise "City Roads". The services involved repairing the road surface following the repair of heating networks in Odesa.

The winner was "Rostdorstroy", which submitted the only proposal. A contract with the company was signed in February of that year, and later, the scope of procurement was adjusted with an additional agreement.

The investigation is considering the version that the company participated in the trading formally, without competition, while the municipal enterprise provided fictitious technical specifications ensuring the victory for "Rostdorstroy". According to the investigators, this scheme has been in place at least since 2023. Meanwhile, on Prozorro, participants of the mentioned procurement complained about discriminatory requirements in the tender documentation, particularly restrictions regarding the term of validity for similar contracts.

The police requested access to the documentation of another municipal enterprise that controls heating networks, but the court denied this request. The investigation is ongoing.

It should be noted that LLC "Rostdorstroy" has repeatedly won controversial tenders, which have often attracted the attention of the State Audit Service. The companies "Avtomahistral-Pivden" and "Rostdorstroy" received three contracts totaling half a billion hryvnias for the repair of bridges in the Kherson region, damaged during the Russian invasion. Due to violations during the tenders, the State Audit Service is already demanding the cancellation of two of them.

The Service for the Restoration and Development of Infrastructure in the Mykolaiv region awarded two contracts for the major overhaul of bridges on the R81 Kazanka-Snihurivka highway to the companies "Ukrtransmist" and "Rostdorstroy" in August, without competition, amounting to over 172 million hryvnias.

The company "Rostdorstroy" is officially owned by multiple-term deputy from the mayor’s party "Trust Deeds" Yuriy Shumakher. Unofficially, it is likely controlled by the former father-in-law of the Russian oligarch from Putin’s entourage, Roman Abramovych, businessman Oleksandr Zhukov.