New scandal with military food: leadership of Shevchenko University is involved
After the scandal with non-transparent contracts for army food by Svitlana and Ihor Hrynkevych’s structures, investigative journalists of the Nashi Hroshi (Our Money -ed.) publication pointed to another large contract with signs of significant price overstatement.
It is about the food for cadets of the Ministry of Defense at the Shevchenko University in Kyiv, where the local rector Volodymyr Buhrov inflates prices for certain items almost twice as much as market prices, and this is paid from the state budget through the defense department, Censor.NET reports, with reference to an article by Nashi Hroshi (Our Money -ed.).
The journalists wrote down the price grid at the KNU, as follows: UAH 333 for a frozen hake (Svitlana Hrynkevych's Trade Lines Retail has the same item for UAH 120), UAH 41.41 for rye bread (Hrynkevych's - UAH 13), UAH 8 for drinking water (Hrynkevych's - UAH 5.5), UAH 180 for canned beef (Hrynkevych's - UAH 100), etc.
Thus, the contract, which will be valid until March 31, 2024, includes prices that are one and a half to two times too high even compared to openly corrupt deals. In total, as part of the agreement, the management of the KNU, and in particular Buhrov, will receive UAH 51.45 million from the budget.
The investigators also added that the universities received their contracts "without any tenders at all, as it concerns cadets' meals in the canteens of the universities themselves," meaning that the KNU "set the price for the military, which the ministry is forced to pay."
Earlier it was reported that the construction companies of Lviv businessman Ihor Hrynkevych received contracts worth UAH 1.5 billion from the Ministry of Defense in 2023 to supply summer clothing and underwear for the Armed Forces. At least 17 contracts have been canceled.
Censor.NET also wrote that SBI officers detained a Lviv businessman while he was trying to bribe one of the heads of the SBI's Main Investigation Department with $500,000. According to media reports, it was Ihor Hrynkevych. His face was revealed by law enforcement through anonymous telegram channels.
On December 29, it was reported that a Lviv businessman, one of the largest suppliers to the Ministry of Defense, bribed the head of the SBI's Main Investigation Department for $500,000. It was also reported that the Defense Ministry had one unexpired contract with Hrynkevych's company, which supplies food to the military in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions.
Read more about this case in Censor.NET's article "Gold rail carriage, sand quarry and luxury parties: why a supplier of the Ministry of Defense bribed the SBI with $500 thousand".
