The Khmelnytskyi Oblast Procurement Service has declined to share documents concerning a tender consultant involved in procurement for a bomb shelter construction project with ZHAR.INFO journalist Maria Turchyna again. Her request was reviewed after a letter from the office of the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights.
Alyona Bereza, the Institute of Mass Information’s regional representative in Khmelnytskyi oblast, learned of this from responses by the agency and by the Commissioner’s Khmelnytskyi oblast office, which ZHAR.INFO shared with her.
Maria Turchyna submitted a query for information to the company on 21 July 2026, asking for contracts or other documents relating to tender consultations in two procurements for the construction of a bomb shelter for Horodok Lyceum No. 2. In her query, the journalist pointed out that the tender documentation stipulated that the consultant’s services would be paid for by the procurement winner, in the amount of 130,000 hryvnias excluding VAT.
After the first refusal, the journalist filed a complaint with the Commissioner. The Commissioner’s office approached the agency, asking it to review the query again, stressing that any restriction of access needed to be justifyed through applying the “three-part test.”
In its 9 October response, signed by commission chair Andriy Kolesnik, the agency refused to provide the documents again, claiming that they were not the information administrator in this case and that the agreement was confidential:
“Information about it can not be disclosed without the consent of the other party. Moreover, the terms of the contract and the current law provide for liability for disclosing confidential information,” the agency’s response states.
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The agency said that disclosing the information could lead to a breach of contractual obligations and to property losses and reputational damage, and assessed that the public interest did not outweigh that harm, since the it was the tender winner shouldering the expenses for the consultant’s services. At the same time, an audit of the procurement found that the inclusion of this condition in the tender documentation had been unlawful, since consultant services were not covered by the procurement deal.
Oksana Kizaieva, the Commissioner’s representative in Khmelnytskyi oblast, reported that proceedings on the complaint had been concluded:
“In view of the above, and of the response provided by the Commissioner, we see no grounds for taking additional action within these proceedings. Accordingly, the proceedings on your complaint have been concluded,” the response from the Commissioner’s office states.
Lawyer Yuriy Melnyk considers the repeat refusal legally unfounded and stressed that a term in a contract could not override the requirements of the law:
“A contractual term can not override the requirements of the law. Moreover, it is specific information that can be classified, not the entire document: the rest of the contract must be provided,” the lawyer stressed.
The lawyer added that the mention of the “three-part test” alone did not show that it had been applied properly, and that the Commissioner’s office had handled the complaint as a formality:
“So there are grounds to go to an administrative court and demand that the contract be provided, if necessary with the fragments proven to be confidential edited out,” Yuriy Melnyk concluded.
Previously, ZHAR.INFO journalist Maria Turchyna contacted the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights over the state-owned company Khmelnytskyi Oblast Procurement Service refusing to disclose documents concerning a tender consultant involved in procurement for a bomb shelter construction project.