The amount of savings (the prevention of inefficient use of funds) is the key indicator of our department’s effectiveness in monitoring procurement and restoration projects. In March, we managed to save UAH 18.9 million. Changes in procurement procedures are a long-term effort. That’s why this amount reflects the results of requests submitted earlier. Here are five of the most rewarding cases we’ve seen.

House of Culture in Sokyriany

Following our request, the Sokyriany City Council reduced the contract value by UAH 7.1 million.

The construction story of the regional House of Culture in Chernivtsi region began in early December last year. The Sokyriany City Council announced a procurement for construction works worth nearly UAH 250 million. Smerechyna LLC, established in 2018, was selected as the winner.

Our experts identified a potential overpayment of UAH 3.5 million for building materials, including mastic, hot-rolled reinforcing steel of various profiles, and concrete mix. We sent a letter to the procuring entity, but the Sokyriany City Council did not acknowledge the overpricing of certain construction materials.

“In response, the procuring entity stated that prior to the procurement, they had adjusted the design and estimate documentation, and the total price offered by the participant was lower than that in the DED. For some reason, they also noted that they saw no grounds not to conclude a contract with this participant, even though we never suggested otherwise,” said Yaroslav Pylypenko, Senior Analyst of the DOZORRO project at Transparency International Ukraine.

However, the Sokyriany City Council and Smerechyna LLC later signed an additional agreement reducing the contract price by UAH 7.1 million, specifically due to the material prices we had flagged as inflated in our request.

Major repairs of an emergency medical substation in Zaporizhzhia

Another case: the Regional Center for Emergency Medical Care and Disaster Medicine of the Zaporizhzhia City Council announced a procurement for major repairs of an emergency medical substation. The potential overpayment was UAH 4.3 million—9% of the estimated value.

We contacted the procuring entity. In response to our request, they stated that they were reviewing the information and verifying the prices, which is why the deadline for signing the contract was extended. At the same time, DOZORRO reached out to the State Audit Service. The auditors also identified violations. As a result, the Zaporizhzhia City Council canceled the tender. This allowed us to prevent the inefficient use of UAH 4.3 million. We hope the tender will be re-announced with our comments on overpricing taken into account.

Repair of premises for installation of medical equipment in Kharkiv

UAH 2.4 million was saved on the procurement for repairing premises in the municipal “Main Building.” The initial contract amount was UAH 26 million; however, 11% of that sum was identified as a potential overpayment.

We sent a letter with calculations to the procuring entity, the Municipal Non-Profit Enterprise “Regional Oncology Center.” They accepted our comments and promised to align the prices with average market rates. And they followed through—on March 7, they signed an additional agreement, reducing the contract amount by UAH 2.4 million.

Current repairs at Kyiv City Clinical Hospital No. 3

The long-term effort involves submitting a request in November 2024 and seeing results by March of the following year. That was the case with the procurement for current repairs on the second floor of the main building at Kyiv City Clinical Hospital No. 3.

The initial contract price exceeded UAH 24 million. Our experts identified a potential overpayment of UAH 1.1 million. In November of last year, we contacted Kyiv City Clinical Hospital No. 3, shared our calculations, and requested a reduction in the contract amount. In response, we were told that our arguments were insufficient, as current repairs are not regulated by building codes.

However, nearly four months later, on March 19, 2025, the procuring entity signed an additional agreement. As a result, we succeeded in preventing the inefficient use of UAH 2.3 million.

Major repairs of buildings of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Odesa Region

We are now seeing the results of the February monitoring, when we analyzed the procurement for major repairs of buildings belonging to the Main Directorate of the National Police in Odesa region. In the contract worth over UAH 42 million, the potential overpayment was estimated at approximately UAH 1.5 million.

Although the procuring entity did not respond to our request, it signed an additional agreement with the contractor on March 20, reducing the contract amount by UAH 2.1 million.

What did we do in March?

In March, the DOZORRO team analyzed 74 procurement transactions totaling over UAH 4 billion and identified violations in 50 of them.

The most common issues we identified were possible overestimations of the estimated value and overpayments—31 such cases in total. The accrued amount of potential overpayments exceeded UAH 124 million. However, it is too early to calculate the actual savings resulting from the March monitoring. We expect to see those results in the coming months.

Another category of potential violations we identified involved irregularities in the evaluation of bidders’ proposals—found in 19 out of the 74 procurement transactions.

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This material is funded by the European Union. Its content is the sole responsibility of Transparency International Ukraine and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.