Okhmatdyt hospital renovation: journalists and politicians point out controversial nuances
23 January 16:20
on January 20, the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine signed an agreement with Arkon Engineering Company LLC to design a major overhaul of the building of the medical and diagnostic complex worth UAH 13.77 million. This was reported by Komersant ukrainskyi with reference to Prozorro.
The building was damaged by a Russian missile in July 2024. The task involves the restoration of various structures, finishing of premises, engineering networks and other elements. The documentation should be ready by July 2025.
One of the firms that participated in the tender asked for technical documents, but the customer indicated that they could be found in the relevant orders of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. Three firms came to the tender, and the lowest price was offered by the company “Energy Efficiency and Consulting”. However, this price was recognized as abnormally low and was not justified, so the customer decided to reject it. The winner of the tender was Arkon Engineering Company.
According to the article by Nashi Hroshi journalist, this company is currently headed by Oleksandr Bilyk and owned by Kateryna Kyzymenko’s Audit Center LLC. Her husband, Matvii Kyzymenko, in turn, heads the State Enterprise NDIproektrekonstruktsiya. In October 2024, together with this company, documentation was prepared for the overhaul of the medical and diagnostic complex. Previously, Arkon LLC was owned by Olga Sakhan, and the company’s director was Oleksandr Bilyk.
It is also worth noting that Kyzymenko’s family has ties to other companies. Kyzymenko’s brother David owns Ukrbud-Proekt-Reconstruction LLC, and the family also owned Hozkhimservis. Such connections raise certain questions about the transparency of tender procedures and possible conflicts of interest.
Nevertheless, the project to renovate the medical and diagnostic complex for the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital has already started, and it is expected that the overhaul will be successfully completed in the near future.
It is worth noting that MP Iryna Gerashchenko also commented on the situation with the restoration of the children’s hospital.
The parliamentarian wrote in her Telegram channel that she had recently visited Okhmatdyt.
“The new and 11th buildings are greeted with plywood windows. The doctors say that together with benefactors, they actually made cosmetic repairs to the rooms themselves. The authorities and those responsible for the restoration work have lost precious time to quickly conduct a professional examination of the surgical building in the warm season, in summer and fall, and restore what only needed repair,” Gerashchenko wrote.
The MP expressed the opinion that, instead of the necessary repairs, “there was a dubious examination, which recorded the need to demolish the surgical building in one line and the possibility of its operation in the second. They wrote it so as not to be responsible for the consequences of this “expertise” and to please everyone. Bankova Street also blocked the possibility for philanthropists […] to repair the branches affected by the attack.”
“It seems that the authorities are stalling for time so that the surgical building really becomes unusable, and there is a scenario that will be realized – not restoration, but a new large-scale construction,” Gerashchenko summarized.