Shelter in Avanhard: audit, canceled auction and criminal proceedings

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The construction of a dual-purpose protective structure for 150 people on the territory of the «Madagascar» kindergarten in the settlement of Avanhard has become the subject of an audit by the State Audit Service and a criminal proceeding under the signs of Part 4 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Although, it seems, the silence after the audit for half a year suggests that the mayor of Avanhard, Khrustovskyi, is trying by all means and connections to close the problematic issue, since many of his direct subordinates are involved in the case.

State Audit Service Audit

The Southern Office of the State Audit Service of Ukraine conducted an audit of the financial and economic activities of the Housing and Communal Enterprise «Dragnava» of the Avanhard Settlement Council for the period from 01.01.2021 to 30.06.2025.

As a result, Audit Act No. 151509-11/149 dated 09.09.2025 was drawn up. The act was signed by officials without comments or objections. The audit materials were transferred to the Department of Strategic Investigations in the Odesa Region of the SID of the NPU and attached to the materials of criminal proceeding No. 42024162160000009, opened under the signs of Part 4 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (for embezzlement, misappropriation or taking possession of someone else’s property by abuse of official position, committed on a large scale or under martial law or emergency conditions. This is a serious corruption crime punishable by imprisonment for a term of 5 to 8 years with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions).

This enterprise is one of those involved in the case along with the department of capital construction, housing and communal services, communal property of the Avanhard Settlement Council.

At the same time, the auditors refused to disclose the content of the detected violations, referring to the provisions of the Law «On Access to Public Information» and restrictions related to the secrecy of pre-trial investigation. Although before the war all audit acts were open. So, are we hiding facts of abuse?

Criminal Proceeding

Interestingly, for the facts of embezzlement and profiting from shelters, criminal proceeding No. 42024162160000009 was opened on 29.01.2024 under Part 4 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — misappropriation of budget funds by abuse of official position.

By the ruling of the Bilyayivka District Court of Odesa Region dated 23.02.2024, the investigator was granted access to financial, banking, tax, and accounting documentation. It is planned to conduct construction-technical, forensic-economic, and handwriting examinations. Thus, the audit materials were simply attached to the existing case.

And the main and most interesting thing is what the investigation is uncovering. And all this is profiting on children, shelters for safety.

The case materials include contracts for:

• New construction of a shelter — 15.5 million UAH.

• Major repair of a shelter — 7.78 million UAH.

• Major repair of a shelter in an educational institution — 6.49 million UAH.

• Major repair of a basement for a shelter — 7 million UAH.

Total amount — about 36.7 million UAH.

I appoint the winner – whoever I want!

We will focus for now on one of these procurements, which was also handled by the auditors.

The procurement for the construction of buildings (new construction of a separately located dual-purpose protective structure for 150 people on the territory of the «Madagascar» kindergarten at the address: settlement of Avanhard, European Street, 11) was conducted as open bidding with an electronic auction. The expected cost was 17,336,587.83 UAH. The procedure did not result in the conclusion of a contract. Because the Avanhard City Council violated everything it could and couldn’t, according to the complaint of the company from which the victory was taken away.

The State Audit Service was the first to write about the violations, notifying the start of monitoring of procurement procedures.

The Permanent Administrative Collegium of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine established that the customer did not detect and properly respond to inconsistencies in the winner’s tender proposal, and also did not ensure compliance with the mechanism for their elimination in accordance with the established procedure.

At the same time, taking into account the circumstances set out in the decision, the proposal of that winner, who won in the opinion of Khrustovskyi’s officials, LLC «Sigol», was subject to rejection. By not rejecting such a proposal, the customer actually violated the norm that directly obliges to reject the tender proposal if the participant does not correct the detected inconsistencies within 24 hours.

Separately, the collegium noted the application of a different approach to participants: the complainant’s proposal was rejected, while the winner’s proposal was not, despite grounds for its rejection.

As a result of the complaint review, the AMCU obliged the Department of Capital Construction, Housing and Communal Services, and Communal Property of the Avanhard Settlement Council to cancel the decision on determining LLC «Sigol» as the winner of the procurement procedure.

Didn’t work with the auction – we choose ourselves

After that, a new procurement was conducted for the same «Madagascar» kindergarten, but to avoid risks, already without an electronic auction — essentially by direct conclusion of a contract with LLC «SPC «Flagman»» for the amount of 15,500,000 UAH.

The difference between the first and second expected values was 1,836,587.83 UAH (approximately 10.6%).

Questions arise:

• Why were open bidding not announced again?

• Did the grounds for procurement without an electronic system comply with the law?

• Do the actual volumes of work correspond to the acts of completed works?

• Were there additional agreements that changed the contract terms?

And here in the tender, you can immediately see that there are no complaints, no angry letters from the State Audit Service about the start of monitoring procurement procedures.

And here without competition, the contractor gets its contractor, who, by the way, in the Avanhard community is involved in a number of criminal cases, including the reconstruction of the canteen (dining block) of the General Secondary Education School «Prylimansky Lyceum» on Central Street, 127 in the village of Prylimanske, Odesa District, Odesa Region. Adjustment.

And interestingly, everything is like with Khrustovskyi’s subordinates: all cheap proposals are rejected, and the most expensive one was given the tender.

This tender, by the way, also became the subject of attention from both law enforcement and State auditors.

Thus, for now, officials together with contractors manage to bypass both audits and responsibility for discriminatory tenders, when the most expensive proposal becomes the winner. Thus, the community loses funds, and the culprits remain unpunished.