The State Audit Service in its sad rating The "TOP-100 most expensive procurements for the restoration of civil facilities in the Prozorro system" twice recognized the Izmail City Council for two tenders:
- reconstruction works of communally owned streets and roads for 9 million 751 thousand UAH
- current repair (evacuation routes) of safety paths to the port infrastructure for 2 million 212 thousand UAH
Izmail is a small city with a population of up to 70 people in the south of Odesa region. Here, on the banks of the Danube, there is a port that plays a key role in Ukraine's grain exports.
For more than 13 years, the city has been managed by Andriy Abramchenko, who during his career changed many parties depending on the political changes in Kyiv. He also has questions regarding the city budget. After all, the budget in Izmail is quite large, almost 1 billion, which can be spent and spent...
For the first time, a public scandal regarding Izmail's budget manipulations arose back in 2019. Social networks actively discussed how in Izmail the same streets are being repaired and tiles are being laid on the same sidewalks, and on the outskirts of the city, outside the "tourist route, you cannot walk without rubber boots.
The discussions were so resonant that in September 2019, auditors from Odesa, from the Southern Office of the State Audit Service, came to the Department of Housing and Communal Services of the Izmail City Council. However, the check is over quite prosaic - they found violations in the amount of UAH 784.
While the inspection by the State Audit Service was going on, journalists conducted their investigations. And they discovered multimillion-dollar violations that occurred just at the time of the inspection, under the supervision of the auditors. As noted in the media, in October-November 2019, 67 procurements worth over 33 million hryvnias were carried out in the Izmail administration of housing and communal services, which were awarded to 3 local companies:
- PJSC "Izmailagroshlyahbud" — 42 contracts for UAH 27,8 million;
- PP Rodnik" — 10 contracts in the amount of UAH 2,1 million;
- "Altair-Bud" company — 15 contracts worth UAH 4 million.
In order not to hold open auctions, the auction items were broken down in such a way that the amount of the contract did not exceed UAH 1,5 million. And this is only at the time of the inspection. And in just 9 months of 2019, Izmail UZHKG awarded 5 local companies "Izmailagroshlyahbud", "Rodnik", "Altair-Bud", "Evrodor" and "Conti" contracts for a total amount of UAH 230 million
But neither auditors nor law enforcement officers were interested in these million-dollar violations. Therefore, this "deriban" continued. In order not to hold auctions, Izmailsk UZHKG started to hold tenders for immediate repairs after failures. Only in December 2021, 26 contracts were concluded for the repair of streets after failures.
After the start of the war, the situation did not change. And now millions are taking some evacuation routes in inner-quarter passages, and Izmail mayor Andriy Abramchenko calls it measures of territorial defense, as in this payment from the treasury:
Cynicism continues this year as well. Media resource "Dumskaya" states the facts about blatant corruption in Izmail: in 2023, the street was renovated here. Dunaysk: from Swan Lake to Sichovy Streltsy Street. Contract works were performed by "SMU-56". And in 2024, Izmail UZHKG again purchased the repair of Dunayska, dividing the purchase item into 6 different sections of the street. The amount of expenses amounted to UAH 1,1 million, although the contractor should have carried out warranty repairs. But no - it's better to pay.
Meanwhile, in Izmail in April 2023 2 cars were stuck ambulance And they got so stuck that they managed to pull them out of the mud only with the help of an emergency service vehicle.
Apparently, the mayor of Izmail, Andriy Abramchenko, believes that it is better to waste the budget by moving asphalt in the same place than to build a road instead of mud.
And it is even better to direct the funds to the local anti-terrorist defense system, which survives as best it can, while the Izmail city hall spends millions on repairing the evacuation routes to it.
We hope that the State Audit Service, instead of rating tenders, will finally undertake a real check of the "deribans".
