Inheritance tax: how a funeral service scheme was built in Avanhard

Читати українськоюЧитать на русском

Relatives of the deceased in the Avanhardivska territorial community have been actually overpaying for basic funeral services for years. This concerns a systematic overpayment of about 20% for digging graves, which arose due to the decision of the executive committee of the Avanhardivska village council, whose activities are led and controlled by village head Khrustovsky.

Interestingly, no one has returned the money to people to this day, of course. Damage to the budget is one thing, but profiting from citizens is quite another.

AMCU Decision

The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has officially established that the municipal enterprise «Avangardcomunservice» illegally included VAT in the tariffs for ritual services, which, according to the legislation, are not subject to taxation. At the same time, the enterprise held 100% of the ritual services market in the community, and residents had no alternative — they had to pay the established tariffs.

After the violation was recorded by the AMCU, the scheme, judging by the data from the Prozorro public procurement system, changed form but not substance.

The municipal enterprise «Avangardcomunservice», controlled by the executive committee, began systematically awarding contracts to the same individual — entrepreneur Pavlo Vartanyan (EDRPOU/IPN 3708307753).

According to Prozorro data, this FOP:

— receives contracts almost exclusively from ME «Avangardcomunservice» and from no one else;

— performs a wide range of works: from landscaping territories and installing advertising structures to dismantling, earthworks, and digging graves;
— meanwhile, its main official activity is related to real estate rental, not ritual or construction services.

According to the public procurement system data, over the past years, about 2 million hryvnias have been transferred through contracts between ME «Avangardcomunservice» and this FOP. At the same time, procurements were conducted without real competition, and the contractor was essentially the only one. All data is hidden.

One of the contracts concluded at the end of 2025 deserves special attention.

According to Prozorro information, on December 25, 2025, ME «Avangardcomunservice» signed a contract for «services for uprooting trees for transplantation».

Subject of the contract — 41 trees.

Work performance period — from December 19 to 31, 2025.

Place of performance — Avanhard settlement, Odesa region.

Source of funding — local budget.

In fact, this concerns digging up and transplanting trees in the winter period, in December, which raises reasonable questions regarding expediency and actual performance of such works. Winter and weather conditions, judging by the documents, did not bother anyone. And there were two such tenders at the end of the year. It looks very much like someone was in a hurry to spend the remaining funds from the accounts.

Profited from Residents

Meanwhile, community residents continue to bear significant expenses related to funeral services.

According to available information, the cost of individual services is: — morgue services («washing and dressing») — from 4,000 to 8,000 hryvnias;
— cemetery plot — up to 10,000 US dollars;
— for military — about 6,000 US dollars.

The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine also assessed the tariff policy of the municipal enterprise. The logical next step appears to be an audit of the procurement activities of ME «Avangardcomunservice», the role of the executive committee of the Avanhardivska village council, and the personal responsibility of officials who made the relevant decisions.

The Avanhardivska village council illegally approved tariffs for ritual services, which included 20% VAT, although by law, grave digging and burial services are exempt from VAT. The ME had a 100% monopoly on the ritual services market in the community and charged people inflated fees at the expense of the illegal tax.

The AMCU established:

 • VAT was included deliberately for five years.

 • Tariffs were approved by the village council’s executive committee.

 • Such actions constitute legitimization of abuse of monopoly position.

 • Consumer rights were violated because this would have been impossible with competition.

In the end, the ME came up with nothing better than to funnel the money through an FOP that doesn’t even have enough staff for this.

According to the Prozorro analytical dashboard (Clarity Project), FOP Pavlo Vartanyan (EDRPOU/IPN 3708307753) participated in 8 procurements and won all of them, thus earning 1.90 million UAH.

But let’s return to FOP Vartanyan. He managed to perform a very diverse range of works for this enterprise and only for it:

— funeral services: «Services for digging and filling graves manually» (contract 459,000 UAH; procurement UA-2024-12-13-004412-a), as well as «Funeral and related services» for 500,000 UAH (UA-2025-12-31-000402-a);

— landscaping and maintenance of green spaces (UA-2025-12-25-005977-a and UA-2025-12-23-017385-a, 20,500 UAH each) in winter;

— improvement/installation of advertising means and information boards (UA-2025-12-03-001979-a for 150,000 UAH).

Thus, the same contractor receives orders from one municipal enterprise over a short period for incompatible types of work by profile — from funeral services to landscaping and advertising structures. This is a typical indicator of procurement concentration and risk of lack of real competition.

Thus, legally and illegally, in Avanhard, they profited from death for many years.