“Pontem instead of WOG: the tender for catering for UZ passengers was awarded to Lithuanians, who became the leaders in procurement of the Ministry of Defence during the war
30 May 2024 16:08
Ukrzaliznytsia has chosen a new catering service provider for high-speed trains: for the next 5 years, the Lithuanian company Pontem.ua will be feeding Intercity passengers. Before that, for the last 8 years, it was the Ukrainian company WOG, reports "Komersant Ukrainian"
The auction was attended by 7 companies, including the largest petrol stations, a restaurant holding, coffee shops, catering companies, etc.
The winner of the auction in the SmartTender system was Pontem.ua LLC, which offered a price twice as high as the starting price – UAH 3.63 million excluding VAT as a guaranteed monthly payment.
This is not the first auction for UZ’s catering – back in October 2023, the tender was held, with Ramedas Ukraine winning and Pontem.ua coming in second. However, they were both disqualified due to the lack of the necessary documentation.
This time, Pontem.ua won the auction. This foreign company is one of the key suppliers of food to the Ministry of Defence. The total amount of sales through tenders with the Ministry of Defence was UAH 959,527,360.
“Pontem.ua signed a single contract with the Ministry of Defence for this amount in June last year for food for personnel of military units and military educational institutions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in stationary and field conditions.
At the same time, the company itself is a defendant in a criminal case on misappropriation of public funds for the procurement of food for schoolchildren in Kyiv and a defendant in a case on fines imposed by the tax authorities.
Parents of schoolchildren whose meals are provided by this company have also repeatedly complained about Pontem.ua.
“Another SHOCK from the chefs of Pontem.ua. This is even worse than the borsch made from yesterday’s leftover cabbage. Today, according to the menu, there are home-made potatoes and natural vegetables, but since the vegetables were not delivered, someone decided to give plums. And so, after the first shift, a person from the team threw the leftover potatoes into the bin. Then the children on the second shift came to eat and found plum pits in their mouths! Plum stones that the children had eaten earlier! And it was not just one child, 5 children complained to the teacher at the same time. As it turned out, the team had cooked very few potatoes, so they decided to take everything out of the bin!”
– said the parents of one of the students on the Facebook page Parents SOS back in 2019.
Another school complained that Pontem UA provided catering products without approval.
“Pontem UA provides canteen products and there is no approval, or rather any hint of approval and compliance. And as for the quality of the food, see for yourself – almost everything was wasted. It looked terrible, and there will be a separate post about the products seen by representatives of the Solomianskyi District State Administration, but what they saw and recorded (I looked at the photos) – I’m sorry, but this is not what pigs are fed,”
– read another post.
It is not known for certain what the quality of food from Pontem.ua will be for Ukrzaliznytsia passengers. However, given that this company, despite scandals, criminal cases and complaints, is still engaged in school catering and wins relevant tenders, in the 5 years that it will be feeding Intercity passengers, society has time to assess the work of this company.
Author: Alyona Kaplina
