Ternopil City Council overpriced low-quality sleeping bags for schools
17 October 2024 09:48
The Ternopil City Council purchased 4,500 sleeping bags for the city’s educational institutions, but they turned out to be of poor quality, three times more expensive than on the market, and purchased from a company registered 5 days earlier. This was revealed during an audit by the State Audit Service of Ukraine, reports "Komersant Ukrainian"
According to the State Audit Service, the purchase was made by concluding an agreement with a limited liability company (LLC) without holding an open tender. In addition, as Chernivtsi Ray has learned, the contract was awarded to Fast Factors LLC, which was registered 5 days before the tender.
More than UAH 12 million of budget funds were spent on the purchase of sleeping bags. At the same time, the goods did not have quality certificates and proper labelling, which casts doubt on their compliance with the requirements.
The Ternopil authorities failed to provide clear explanations as to why this particular supplier was chosen, and did not justify why the sleeping bags received did not meet the conditions stipulated in the contract.
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In an attempt to challenge the State Audit Service’s request to eliminate the violations, the Ternopil City Council went to court. However, the Court of Appeal dismissed the claim and upheld the auditors’ decision.
Following the discovery of the unfair procurement, the Ternopil Regional Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into possible wrongdoing. As a result, the director of the LLC that supplied the sleeping bags was served with a notice of suspicion under part five of Article 191 (misappropriation or embezzlement of property through abuse of office) and part two of Article 209 (legalisation of the proceeds of crime) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
At the same time, for some reason, there is no information about the suspicions announced to the city council officials.
Currently, the Ternopil City Council is seeking a court order from the supplier to replace the sleeping bags with goods of proper quality.
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