17.01.2025
Money laundering
The Great Construction Program
Threats from the Kharkiv Region Recovery Service? Road corruption cartel returns to steal billions from the budget

President Zelenskyy’s “Great Construction” has turned into the “Great Reconstruction”. Now, the government’s top priority is not European roads, but the reconstruction of damaged housing and the construction of fortifications. Nevertheless, billions of hryvnias continue to be allocated for road repairs in communities close to the frontline, and sometimes in temporarily occupied areas. So who is in charge of the “big robbery”? Why is the government headed by Shmyhal silent about this? And how did they threaten us with legal proceedings for analyzing the tenders?
Court wars or hiding the truth by the Kharkiv Region Restoration Service?
Recently, we received a letter from the Kharkiv Regional Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service denying any allegations of involvement of their head, Andriy Alekseev, in corruption schemes.
The letter states that all allegations regarding violations during the tender procurement process, such as anti-competitive procedure, selection of pre-agreed companies as winners and their affiliation, are groundless and not supported by facts. In addition, it is noted that the complaint from the NGO Non-Stop against the Recovery Service is intended to cause reputational damage, not to highlight crimes and draw the attention of controllers.
But there is an important question: if the above accusations are groundless, why do we continue to see similar corruption schemes related to infrastructure tenders? We have repeatedly written about unacceptable prices for some projects and questionable “wishes” to the terms of tenders that scare off competitors and allow some companies to win contracts without any real competition.
It looks like they just want to intimidate us with lawsuits. However, apparently, the Service is not sufficiently familiar with our activities and does not know that we always achieve the truth and are not afraid of litigation. Especially if the procurement analysis confirms the facts stated in the complaints and posts.
So, let’s analyze recent procurements and the main “players”.
Road construction in the temporarily occupied territories of Kharkiv region?
On December 3, 2024, the State Enterprise “Roads of Kharkiv Region” announced a series of procurements for the “Operational Maintenance of Public Roads” in different districts of the region, including Chuhuiv (expected cost of UAH 224 million), Lozova (UAH 219 million), Krasnohrad (UAH 224 million), Izium (UAH 224 million), Bohodukhiv (UAH 222 million), Kupiansk (UAH 211 million), and Kharkiv (UAH 272 million).
Interestingly, the documentation records repairs in rather disputed areas. Roads: Vovchansk-Zemlianky, Riznykove-Buzove, Shestakove-Peremoha-Rubizhne, Vovchansk-Starytsia, Tavilzhanka-Terny, and entrances to a number of villages such as Dvorichanske, Pishchane, etc.
At the same time, some of these roads are under Russian control, while others are located near the front. Is it reasonable to spend millions on their repair? Or are officials helping the Russians move their military equipment more easily?
Road cartel or monopoly on major presidential programs?
Avtomagistral-Pivden, one of the largest companies in the road construction market, continues to win new contracts.
Since the beginning of 2020, Avtomagistral-Pivden has won contracts worth more than UAH 147 billion. Although the company has been repeatedly targeted by law enforcement agencies in recent years due to suspicions of overpricing and corruption schemes, its market position has not wavered.
One of the largest recent tenders was a UAH 440 million contract to repair the Darnytsia overpass in Kyiv. Interestingly, this particular deal was concluded after the police raided the company. And despite all the criminal investigations against Avtomagistralya-Pivden, the company continues to receive millions of dollars in contracts from the state.
When bidding through the Prozorro system, Avtomagistral-Pivden often faces rejection of competitors’ proposals based on formal criteria. For example, during a tender for the repair of a bridge in Kyiv, the company won despite the fact that other bidders offered more favorable conditions.
The company is known to have close ties to Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov, and its owners and managers have significant influence on government agencies.
“Rostdorstroy” is another of the largest companies in the road construction market in Ukraine
The owner of the Odesa-based Rostdorstroy LLC is the Hungarian company Ottema, which is owned by two Odesa residents – Yevhen Konovalov and Yuriy Schumacher, a member of the Odesa City Council from the Trust the Deeds party. This party, by the way, is an ally of Odesa Mayor Trukhanov.
Rostdorstroy and Avtomagistral-Pivden jointly won contracts worth more than UAH 5 billion in tenders for Ukravtodor alone.
These firms regularly perform road works at inflated prices, submit false data in the certificates of completion, and even combine contracts for the reconstruction of important facilities using low-quality materials. As a result, the state budget is once again losing money due to unprofessional work and overpriced materials.
All this time, the interests of Avtomagistral-Pivden and Rostdorstroy have been lobbied by the curators of Big Construction, Kyrylo Tymoshenko and Yuriy Golyk, who have their own financial interest in the course of events.
Based on our materials, law enforcement agencies have already initiated a number of proceedings, including: Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office – under No. 42024160000000123, part 1 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
We continue to monitor the situation and are ready to respond to any attempts to conceal the facts of corruption and abuse.
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