Poltava City Council cancels potentially corrupt procurement tenders after media reports
Poltava City Council canceled six procurement tenders after media reports about potentially corrupt procurement deals, says the IMI representative in Poltava.
During the last few months, following the investigation reports by the media outlet "Poltavshchyna", the City Council canceled some public purchases, because the journalists discovered signs of overpricing or corruption.
According to Mykola Lysohor, a journalist from "Poltavshchyna", the city authorities canceled the tender for the purchase of stationery sets for first-graders worth UAH 3.5 million. By the tender's terms, the supply had to be completed before the bidding's final deadline. As the journalists discovered, this may indicate corruption: a supplier who has already prepared everything for the supply was chosen in advance. After the mass media traction, the Poltava City Council secretary, Kateryna Yamshchykova, decided to re-allocate the funds from the stationary kits to bomb shelters in schools.
Moreover, due to the incriminating materials in "Poltavshchyna", the city authorities had to cancel the purchase of a coffin elevator from Belarus for UAH 0.2 million, equipment sets for chemistry classrooms for UAH 0.3 million (one of the tenders was simply "left hanging", says journalist Mykola Lysohor). New equipment sets for science classrooms are now being purchased at a reasonable price. They also canceled the tender for grass mowing in the city for UAH 3.8 million, for the purchase of garbage containers for UAH 6.6 million, and the procurement of paperwork editing services for the renovation of the Bilsk museum for UAH 0.6 million has been put on hold: the head of the Poltava Oblast Military Administration, Philip Pronin, announced that the administration will study the expediency of such a budget commission.
Four more tenders were re-announced after the media attention, but without significant changes.
"There are other potentially corrupt procurement deals that were not canceled or were re-announced without significant changes: container yards for UAH 2.9 million, new bus stops for UAH 10.6 million, overpriced salt for UAH 18.3 million. The tender for the purchase of three hearses with dubious conditions for a specific car model was also re-announced: it used to be worth UAH 8.1 million, but now it's UAH 6.9 million," said Mykola Lysohor.
In the work chat of the Poltava City Council press service and in conversations with journalists at events, the City Council Kateryna Yamshchykova expressed her gratitude to the mass media for their work and the signals they give which help spot corruption in the city and address it.
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