The Avanhard Village Council’s ‘divvying up’ of construction projects of Khrustovskyi during the war

The ring of criminal cases around the Avanhard village council is tightening ever stronger. Despite the war, the team of head Serhiy Khrustovskyi is draining millions and millions of hryvnias to "shell" companies and dubious favorites.

On December 19, another session took place in Avanhard. The deputy corps, led by head Khrustovsky, approved many expensive programs for 2026. They didn’t forget about “Investments in the Future”. That’s the optimistic name for allocating funds to the Department of Capital Construction, Housing and Communal Services, and Communal Property of the Avanhard Village Council. Its head “begged for” 19 million, which are to go toward repairs, construction, and reconstructions. But this is only the starting share of the solid budget of this unit.

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Six months after the start of the full-scale invasion, Khrustovskyi appointed Serhiy Syritka as head of the Capital Construction Department and gave the green light to colossal procurements. If in 2021 the unit spent only 585 thousand UAH on tenders, the next year that amount increased to over 10 million UAH. In 2023, they "tendered" 80 million UAH, and in 2024—a record (so far) 244 million UAH. In total, during the full-scale war, the procurement budget of Syritka’s department amounted to nearly 400 million UAH, which is more than solid for one unit of a small hromada’s village council.

And during this same period, such a “party life” has repeatedly ended up in criminal case materials. For example, take the two most recent ones, one of which is being investigated by the central apparatus of law enforcement.

On November 28, 2024, criminal proceedings No. 12024000000002423 were opened. It is currently represented in courts by the Office of the Prosecutor General, specifically the department dealing with organized crime and investment protection. The case involves several "shell" companies with which officials signed essentially fictitious contracts. One of them is LLC «BC «Comfort Bud». According to the investigation, after receiving large construction contracts, this firm did not even purchase building materials during their execution.

“It has been established that construction work could not be performed by these enterprises, as they lack data on the purchase of goods, building materials, and subcontracting works necessary to fulfill obligations under the contracts”, - from the materials of the Pechersk Court ruling.

One of the customers involved in the case is the same Capital Construction Department of Avanhard. The public e-procurement platform shows only a few tenders that LLC “BC “Comfort Bud” received from Khrustovsky and Syritka’s capbud. More precisely—two, both regarding the construction of the Citizens’ Safety Center in Avanhard. The first, failed, attempt to order this facility was at the end of December 2022. The customer itself canceled the victory of LLC “BC “Comfort Bud” due to problems with the documents.

“Upon additional analysis of the tender proposal of LLC «CONSTRUCTION COMPANY «COMFORT BUD» (EDRPOU code 41424910), discrepancies were found in the contracts provided to confirm experience in performing similar contracts, in terms of content and list of works compared to the works provided for under the procurement subject”, - the customer explained the cancellation this way.

The next attempt was in January 2024. The company again failed to fix the document issues, but this time Khrustovskyi’s team turned a blind eye to it. Moreover, they awarded the victory to “Comfort Bud”, rejecting a cheaper offer from its competitors. The contract for nearly 22 million UAH was signed on February 14, 2024. But then it turned out that this money was not enough. So at the end of December 2024, the same company was given almost another 4 million without competition. This is a fairly common scheme of so-called "adjustment." When a company underbids on a tender and wins, and then they simply add more money via a new contract. Thus, the construction of the Citizens’ Safety Center cost the same Avanhard citizens almost 26 million UAH.

But the main questions are different. If law enforcement considers these contracts essentially fictitious—who actually performed the work, how much did it really cost, and what share of the allocated funds did those involved in the scheme pocket? Because the customer couldn’t not know that the winner wasn’t doing the work.

The other criminal case, No. 42022162160000022, is being handled by local law enforcement. It concerns the construction of a kindergarten in Avanhard. The tender scheme is identical to the first. The Capital Construction Department was ready to pay 68 million UAH. Four companies bid. The first offered nearly 66 million and dropped only to 65 million. The other three came in with offers from 61 million to 57 million. Then a fierce battle ensued, ending with PP “GRAND-GAS-SERVICE” at 53,999,986 UAH. That was just 1 UAH 88 kopecks less than the closest competitor. So through such fierce competition, the Avanhard hromada was supposed to save as much as 14 million UAH!

But it was not to be. Because the next year, using the same "adjustment" scheme, PP “GRAND-GAS-SERVICE” received over 25 million UAH more on the same facility without tenders or competition. Thus, instead of the initially planned 68 million UAH, the kindergarten cost the hromada 79 million UAH.

And even such a scheme wasn’t enough for Khrustovskyi’s team. As the investigation established, the actual work did not match what the customer accepted on paper. And there are all grounds to believe that the extra money was simply pocketed. In the case materials, it sounds like this: “Abusing their official position, they misappropriated budget funds, which were subsequently transferred to the accounts of controlled enterprises”.

So they rigged the tenders, stole the money, and accepted lower-quality work. And this on a kindergarten right in the midst of the war. But these aren’t the only criminal cases not just for the entire Avanhard authorities, but even for this very department of Syritka, to which Khrustovsky’s team “gave the green light” for colossal tender schemes. Because it seems that under the “Investments in the Future” program, someone means the future not of the hromada, but of their own children and grandchildren.

Author: Volodymyr Samusenko