After the tender for the restoration of the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital, which was damaged by shelling by the Russian Armed Forces (and won by a company with inflated prices), Ukraine’s Health Minister Viktor Liashko said that the tender will be held again. The head of the ministry assured that the amounts will be analysed and verified, as there is a difference between major and urgent repairs. In addition, the money raised for Okhmatdyt will be transferred to the hospital’s treasury account.
At the same time, a number of Telegram channels have been raising the topic of the resignation of the current Health Minister since yesterday, insisting that changing the head of the ministry is the only logical solution after the scandal with the reconstruction tender. Komersant ukrainskyi
spoke to political expert Volodymyr Tsybulko, asking him what lies ahead for Viktor Liashko and whether the situation with the reconstruction of Okhmatdyt will affect other fundraising and donations.
Has the decision to re-announce the tender restored public confidence?
“As they say: “the residue remains”. In any case, this government is charged with destroying the moral field, the legislative field. And no matter what the next result is, there will be no trust in it either. Just as there will be no trust in this structure called the Okhmatdyt Foundation,” the political scientist said.
Volodymyr Tsybulko suggested that a Donors’ Council should be convened (all those who have contributed 5 million can convene such a council) to inform the public what they will be guided by when choosing a contractor. Although the ministry wants to launch this through Prozorro, “but at the stage of writing the technical conditions, it is possible to ‘cheat’ so that the ‘right’ company wins again.”
Will the story of the cancelled tender for the reconstruction of Okhmatdyt affect other fundraisers and donations?
Interviewee believes that the incident will not affect future tenders, fundraisers and donations that Ukrainian society will be allocating funds to. But the situation has undermined trust in the government.
“It’s disgusting how Zelensky’s entourage exploited the public shock with the attack on Okhmatdyt. Because then they were torn from the heart, and then abruptly stopped donating to the Armed Forces and turned towards helping the children’s hospital. Now this whole story has cracked,” Tsybulko believes.
According to the political scientist, the only way to restore public trust is to change the government.
Should Viktor Liashko resign to demonstrate his responsibility for the tender scandal?
The political expert is convinced that in this case, it is not about the career of the Minister of Health. The main issue is that the relevant ministry gave the Foundation complete freedom of action in choosing a contractor.
“However, this is still a facility for which the Ministry of Health is responsible. Why was Lyashko silent? That’s why the issue of his resignation should be considered here, too, for sure,” summed up Volodymyr Tsybulko.
What you need to know about the reconstruction of the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital
on 22 July, a tender was a tender was announced for engineering and consulting services for the construction of the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital, which was destroyed by shelling. Vassenov Engineering LLC was announced the winner. This company was the only participant in the auction, and the contract with it has not yet been made public. The company submitted a bid for UAH 9 million 350 thousand and, accordingly, this is the amount that was eventually agreed upon by the parties.
For this money, the winner by the end of this year had to carry out preparatory work for the current repair of the building: draw up work schedules, supply materials, recruit appropriate staff, manage and lead the project, etc.
Another tender was also held on Prozorro tender was also held on Prozorrobut this time for the services of technical supervision of construction works at Okhmatdyt. It was won by another company, IK-PROEKT LLC, which offered a price of UAH 5 million 215 thousand for its services.
At the same time, it became known that the non-governmental organisation Okhmatdyt – Healthy Childhood Charitable Foundation, which manages donor money, is also holding a tender for the repair of Okhmatdyt. It was attended by 14 companies. Given that the tender was conducted by a non-governmental organisation, there was no expected cost and the winner was determined not by the bid price but by the sum of points on various evaluation criteria.
The winner was Bud-technology LLCdespite the fact that this bid was one of the most expensive among all other bidders. The cost of the works by this contractor was UAH 307 million excluding VAT, while other bidders offered to perform the repairs at a much lower cost, ranging from UAH 42 million to UAH 286 million. At the same time, the Foundation did not provide any explanation for ignoring the cheaper bids, even though at least seven of them contained fully completed commercial proposals with detailed descriptions of the work and prices.
Instead, the Okhmatdyt Charitable Foundation posted on Facebook published a statement a statement denying all allegations of non-transparency and dishonesty in the use of funds raised for the restoration of the damaged hospital building.
“The tender procedure was open, meaning that any company could participate. We are currently preparing a detailed report on the competitive selection and the companies that participated in the tender on the SmartTender platform,” the foundation said in a post on its social media page.
“Okhmatdyt Charitable Foundation: what is known about it?
Charitable organisation “Charitable Foundation “Okhmatdyt – Healthy Childhood” was founded in Kyiv in 2022 on the initiative of Ukrainian medical staff of the National Children’s Hospital “Ohmatdyt”, public figures and volunteers.
This is a fund for targeted assistance to the National Children’s Specialised Hospital “Ohmatdyt”, as well as medical institutions that are members of the Association of Children’s Hospitals of Ukraine. Our key goal is to make targeted aid more efficient and to provide children with access to the world’s leading medical technologies used in their treatment.
The Foundation purchases medical equipment that helps save children’s lives. The supervisory board of the foundation includes TV presenter and film producer Yuriy Gorbunov, TV presenter Solomiya Vitvitskaya and chief nurse of the Okhmatdyt National Children’s Hospital Olena Prymak.