Kherson City Council terminates contracts with a journalist who was supposed to receive UAH 7,6 million for bomb shelter repairs

Photo: MOST

The Civil Defense Department of the Kherson City Council terminated contracts with a Lviv-based private entrepreneur and journalist Victoria Savitska, who was supposed to receive a total of UAH 7.6 million for the repair of three bomb shelters, after the contracts were reported in the media.

On October 25, the Kherson online media MOST reported that the journalist was supposed to received UAH 7,637,244 from the Kherson city budget under three contracts. For this money, Victoria Savitska had to overhaul three bomb shelters the addresses of which the Kherson City Military Administration withheld by blocking them out in the contracts.

The journalists learned that all contracts with the head of the Civil Defense Department must be signed by service providers in Kherson. Nataliya Yakovenko, who is indicated as the contact person in these and other purchases of the department, informed them of this by phone.

Savitska's answer to the outlet's correspondent made it clear that she was not in Kherson and did not sign anything.

After the information was reported, the journalists found out that the contracts for the bomb shelter repairs had been terminated in the evening of October 24 – a few hours after the journalists contacted the city authorities with a list of questions about these purchases.

The City Council officials explained in their reply that the contracts were terminated because the repairs could not be started due to a force majeure.

Today, MOST correspondents talked with Savitska and learned that she already knew about the termination of the contracts, but did not see it on the "Prozorro" platform. The journalists also learned that the repairs were to be done by her husband.

"He has a team that does repairs here in Lviv, lays tiles here and there. But he does small things. What 7 million? Good God..." said Victoria Savitska.

She added that she was dealing with her private entrepreneur profile having been used.

"I'm currently trying to understand how my private entrepreneur profile ended up there, and I can't explain to you what it was. There has been no activity on my profile," she said.

Victoria also added that she had "certain suspicions as to who could be doing this," but refused to share them with the media outlet. However, she stated that she had not signed any documents.

"I am in Lviv. I'm actually afraid to accuse someone without looking into the details," answered Victoria when asked if she had signed any documents in Kherson.

The MOST journalist tried to discuss the terminated agreements on the bomb shelter repairs with the head of the Civil Defense Department, Oleksiy Horin, who signed the papers, but he could not say whether he saw Victoria Savitska while signing them.