Everything is up to court: how Hlyniana and Adamovsky got 4 billion contracts to feed army
The most scandalous suppliers of food to the Ministry of Defence have not disappeared and continue to take the biggest chunks of the tenders. Companies from the pool of Tetiana Hlyniana and Andrii Adamovskyi have discovered a new way to win the desired tenders. And the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal is helping them a lot.
How the state will overpay UAH 90 million through the courts
In early May, the SLO announced a tender for the purchase of food for the Armed Forces for the second half of 2025.
The total expected value of the offer is over UAH 22.5 billion.
The number of lots is 16.
In May, the SLO announced 2 large tenders - one for UAH 9.9 billion. The other was for UAH 12 billion.
On average, at least 12 offers were submitted for each lot. And the average savings from the bidding results is about 17%. However, these auctions were marked by a record number of cancelled contracts. In particular, because the signing of the contracts was challenged in the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal.
As a result of the court review, the state will overpay almost UAH 90 million.
After all, some of the lots, worth about UAH 4 billion, were actually redistributed in favour of two companies - "Trade Granite Invest" LLC and "Meat Prom" LLC - not based on the results of the auctions, but through court decisions.
The companies were given the opportunity to challenge their competitors' victories a year ago, but interestingly, only 2 participants have been successful in doing so.
However, let's start with the background.
From counterfeit stew to the largest supplier
Last week, Nashi Hroshi. Lviv" drew attention to the fact that "Trade Granite Invest" company had returned to supplying food to the Ministry of Defence. For the publication, this is a trigger issue because a year ago, it was Lviv journalists who received the stew that "Trade Granit Invest" supplied to the military and found that it did not meet quality requirements and that the documents for it were falsified.
After that, the Ministry of Defence conducted its own laboratory tests of the leftover batch seized from combat units, which confirmed that the canned food did not comply with the relevant DSTU.
Just a few weeks after the publication, the State Logistics Operator cancelled a $2 billion contract with "Trade Granite Invest" and imposed operational and economic sanctions on the company.
The sanctions included that the company would not only pay fines for counterfeiting, but would also not participate in food supplies for a year.
"Trade Granit" appealed this decision in the courts and received a rather half-hearted decision. The company took part in tenders, but its victory was rejected by the SLO because of the sanctions imposed. Doesn't it seem like everything is fine?
But "Trade Poltava", a satellite company of "Trade Granit", participated in the same lots. We can trace how "Trade Poltava" had previously filed complaints against Trade Granit's competitors.
"Trade Granit" was not supposed to participate in the summer bidding for the second half of the year, with sanctions imposed until October 2025.
However, as explained to NGL by the SLO, "Trade Granite Invest" LLC applied for the ban to be lifted six months after it was imposed. The company fulfilled all the necessary conditions, including paying more than UAH 1.4 million in fines, so the SLO cancelled the sanction ahead of schedule.
And in the bidding for the second half of the year, "Trade Granit" was already competing at full strength.
It is worth noting that the internal rules of the "State Logistics Operator" state that the company cannot take more than 2 lots. This should have limited the earnings of some players. But in reality, this is a game for the public. Because usually, the SLO holds two large tenders for food: 12 and 4 lots, and some companies take three lots.
This is what happened this time with "Trade Granit".
In the first tender, "Trade Granite Invest" won 2 lots. In one of them, with an estimated value of UAH 1.4 billion, the company reduced the price to UAH 1.18 and won with the lowest price.
But the second lot, which is much smaller and worth only UAH 371.9 million, has already been won in court. Here, the lowest bids were made by "Okhtyrka Meat Product" LLC and "Mitform" LLC - their prices were 20-22 million cheaper.
However, "Trade Granit" went to court and challenged the victory of its competitors, accusing them of providing false information about the warehouses and vehicle transfer certificates.
In its appeal, "Okhtyrka Meat Product" LLC stressed that the company had fully complied with the customer's requirements and provided confirmation of the availability of different types of warehouses, indicating the area, addresses based on the recommendations, number of gates, ownership/use rights and details of the documents confirming this.
"However, the court erroneously concluded without any evidence or justification, arbitrarily and not in accordance with the qualification criteria, that it is the warehouse facilities with a total warehouse area of at least 1400 sq m that should be used to store goods of animal origin," the court's ruling recounted the appellant's position.
However, the court accepted the position of "Trade Granite Invest".
In the second tender, "Trade Granite" won the lot with an estimated value of UAH 2.1 billion, offering a price of UAH 1.8. But before that, three cheaper offers were rejected. Moreover, the offers of "Okhtyrka Meat Product" LLC and "Mitform" LLC were 53.6 million cheaper.
And while "Okhtyrka Meat Product' LLC was rejected by the SLO itself, because at that time it had already won another lot, "Mitform" LLC was rejected again because of the decision of the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal No. 320/28574/25 as of 17.06.2025.
It is interesting to note that in the same auction, but in a different lot, "Okhtyrka Meat Product" LLC had similar questions from the SLO regarding warehouses, but this did not prevent it from winning.
As a result, "Trade Granit" won three lots for UAH 3.2 billion.
No one can overcome Hlyniana
However, in the list of the largest suppliers of food to the Ministry of Defence, "Trade Granit" is only in second place. And the first place... belongs to "Meat Prom", a company affiliated with Tetiana Hlyniana. Despite the fact that she already has an official suspicion from the NABU in the "eggs for 17 hryvnias" story.
Why is this, you may ask? Because there is no formal connection between Hlyniana and the Lviv-based company "Meat Prom".
The only thing that has exposed their connection is the warehouse in Uzyn that "Meat Prom" rents from Hlyniana's company. This connection also surfaced in the high-profile story of the car detained by the BES, where 4.7 million euros were found in the trunk, which was being taken out of Hlyniana's enterprises in Uzyn.
The court ruling stated that the driver of the forwarding agent "MEAT PROM" LLC and a SSANG YONG REXTON car were used to hide the funds.
The BES staff also noted that the officials of "MEAT MIX" LLC recorded transactions that had signs of doubtfulness and may be related to VAT evasion with such counterparties: "MEAT PROM" LLC (the current supplier to the MoD), VAVILON FOOD LLC, "MIASOPROM" Private Food Factory, PIK & K LLC, "EURO VIK" LLC, "MIT-POSTACH" LLC, "MEATPLUS" LLC, and "BUSINESS MEAT PRODUCT" LLC.
Thus, it will be interesting to see how the BES will investigate this story under the leadership of Oleksandr Tsyvinskyi, as there was no movement over the previous year.
In the meantime, "Meat Prom" received orders worth a record 4.8 billion at the last auction. The company took its largest lot, worth UAH 2.8 billion, because the SLO rejected a cheaper offer from "Okhtyrka Meat Product" LLC, as it had won another lot and the auction ended earlier.
In the 931 million lot, where "Meat Prom" LLC won, the bids of "Buskyi Canning Plant" LLC and Okhtyrka Meat Product" LLC were rejected.
The first company was rejected because the tenderer, which had been determined as the winner of the simplified procurement, refused to enter into a procurement contract.
And "Okhtyrka Meat Product" LLC was rejected by the decision of the Sixth Court of Appeal.
The difference between the winner and "Buskyi" is 153 million, while the difference between the winner and "Okhtyrka" is 17 million.
"Meat Prom" also received the 1.07 billion lot thanks to the decision of the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal, which rejected Mitform's bid.
Earlier this year, "Meat Prom", through the Kyiv Administrative Court and the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal, had already won the 1.09 billion lot from Dnipro-based "Garna Strava". Back then, the court cited the fact that the company had improperly submitted data on the warehouse and the availability of a specialist in the warehouse.
"GARNA STRAVA LLC... considers it unlawful, insists on compliance with the requirements of the Customer's announcement, namely: the plaintiff points out that the criteria for confirming the availability of an IT specialist in accordance with the requirements of paragraph 2 of part 2 of Article 16 of the Law "On Public Procurement" and paragraph 2 of Annex No. 4 of the Announcement have been fully and properly met; draws the court's attention to the fact that paragraph 2 of Annex No. 4 of the Announcement does not provide that the employees who will be involved in the fulfilment of the terms of the contract must be assigned to the object defined by the tender as the material and technical base, i.e., the requirements of the Announcement on simplified procurement do not require that that the participant's employees, indicated in the certificate, must be employed and assigned to warehouses," the company said in its appeal.
However, the court sided with "Meat Prom".
But in the first half of the year, it was a single decision. In the second half of the year, the winners were changed in four lots. For a total of UAH 4 billion.
An interesting trend, isn't it?
P.S. By the way, it is worth recalling that it was the Sixth Court of Appeal also sided with suppliers in the confrontation with the "State Logistics Operator" in the spring of 2024, which led to the disruption of bidding on Prozorro.
Then, on the eve of the proposal disclosure, the Sixth Court of Appeal of Kyiv recognised the qualification criteria from the SLO as discriminatory.
P.P.S. In fact, the food tenders in the second half of the year proved to be very problematic not only because of court decisions. It is worth mentioning here that the SLO cancelled a UAH 3 billion contract because the winning company, "Granpri" LTD, is under investigation by the State Bureau of Investigation for supplying low-quality products.
Tetiana Nikolaienko, Censor. NET
