Millions for Advertising on Prozorro: Who Spends the Most

Advertising for budget money is a shaky topic. On the one hand, such services are important for the development of government communications to citizens, especially in times of such a tense fight against disinformation and PSYOP. On the other hand, officials are always tempted to use it as self-promotion. So, we decided to study who and how purchased advertising during the first year of the full-scale invasion of russia.

We have studied the data on tenders on Prozorro, which:

• were announced from February 24, 2022, to February 24, 2023;
• were conducted under the procurement code CPV 79340000-9 — Advertising and marketing services;
• were about advertising, not other services that fell into the sample after the first two filters; for this purpose, we cleaned up the data manually.

Let us note that some procuring entities could use a different CPV code for such services — for example, enter advertising as placing information in local newspapers. But it is very difficult to identify all such cases in order to include them in the general analytics. By the way, we have studied the procurement of periodicals in a separate material.

Another important note is that this analysis only considers information that is publicly available. Last year, procuring entities did not publish part of the tenders, and it is possible to report on them after the end of martial law.

General trends

During the first year of the full-scale war, public procuring entities purchased advertising for UAH 262 mln on Prozorro. Mostly they purchased:

• services to cover the results of their activities;
• development and placement of information materials in social networks (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok), on outdoor advertising objects (billboards), radio and television;
• conducting advertising campaigns.

Almost 82% of the total amount falls on two oblasts: Kyiv (UAH 108.5 mln) and Dnipropetrovsk (UAH 104.1 mln). But Kyiv Oblast has such an indicator because of PrivatBank and Ukrposhta, which are registered in the capital. Among the leading regions also Odesa Oblast — UAH 5.2 mln, Lviv Oblast — UAH 4.9 mln, and Cherkasy Oblast — UAH 4.4 mln.

Procuring during the war in Prozorro

• The amount of contracts for advertising, concluded in the oblast in the first year of the full-scale war, UAH mln
• Regions that are temporarily occupied by russia
• Data on procurement of advertising 24.02.2022-24.02.2023
• In addition, at the beginning of the full-scale war, procuring entities were allowed to buy everything directly for several months and not to report on it in Prozorro. Information on such procurement is not considered in the infographics.

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast — center of advertising orders for budget money

In this oblast, public procuring entities purchased the most advertising. Mostly such orders were made in Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih.

Support for junior entrepreneurs in Dnipro

In our sample, the largest procuring entity of advertising was the ME “Organizational and Analytical Service” of the Dnipro City Council. It signed contracts for UAH 53.5 mln:

• half — UAH 26.8 mln — falls on the agreements concluded in January 2023;
• the rest — UAH 26.7 mln — is the amount of agreements in 2022.

Interestingly, most of the advertising contracts were signed by the municipal enterprise with the newly created individual entrepreneurs, which participated only in its tenders.

Thus, the largest number of orders was received by individual entrepreneur M. D. Svyrydova — UAH 15.3 mln per year. Maryna Svyrydova started her entrepreneurial activity in September 2021, and in October, she concluded her first tender contract. During the full-scale war, Maryna Svyrydova signed two contracts to cover the activities of the Dnipro City Council on the Internet:

• in August — for UAH 7.4 mln for 1,050 publications on local and all-Ukrainian Internet resources (obozrevatel.com, centr.tv, rbc.ua, nashemisto.dp.ua, 56.ua, dnepr.express, dnpr.com.ua, gorod.dp.ua and others);
• in December — for UAH 7.9 mln for 1,100 such publications.

Thus, the total amount of contracts that the individual entrepreneur has signed with the ME “Organizational and Analytical Service” of the Dnipro City Council has reached UAH 21.3 mln. The entrepreneur does not work with any other procuring entities through Prozorro.

The second contractor in terms of the amount of advertising orders from this ME after February 24, 2022, was individual entrepreneur Kopach V. B. — UAH 14.3 mln. Vadym Kopach registered as an individual entrepreneur in April 2021, and in May, he already got awarded in the first public procurement in which he took part. Over the past year, he has received three contracts:

• in April — for UAH 4.7 mln for the placement of information on the activities of the city council;
• in August — for UAH 2.6 mln for similar services;
• in December — for UAH 7 mln for covering the activities of the Dnipro City Council on the radio in 2023. The information will be placed on the air of the radio stations “HIT FM,” “Radio Relax,” “Radio Melodia,” “kiss FM,” “Radio ROCKS,” radio “BAYRAKTAR.”

IE Kopach V.B. also participated only in those tenders that were announced by the ME “Organizational and Analytical Service” in Dnipro. The amount of contracts concluded with this procuring entity is UAH 18.8 mln.

IE Khrapko O. I. comes third among the advertising contractors of the “Organizational and Analytical Service.” His career path also began in 2021: in April — registration, in May — the first tender contract. At the end of 2022, he concluded an agreement for UAH 6.7 mln for informing about the activities of the Dnipro City Council in printed publications in 2023. We are talking about 200 publications in “Dnipro Vechernii,” “Nashe Misto,” “ZORYA,” “Vesti PRYDNIPROVYA.” The total amount of the IE’s contracts with his sole procuring entity is UAH 18.2 mln.

Another successful beginner in the procurement of advertising in Dnipro was IE Shulika A. O. Over the past year, she signed contracts for UAH 7.7 mln:

• UAH 5.3 mln will be used to cover the activities of the Dnipro City Council on regional TV channels (“11 TV Channel”, “Vidkrytyi”);
• UAH 1.5 mln has already been spent on covering the activities of local authorities on the radio and in the press;
• and another UAH 900,000 — on advertising on regional TV channels.

Traditionally, IE was registered in 2021, namely in March, and already in May, it successfully participated in the procurement of the ME “Organizational and Analytical Service.” Traditionally, the entrepreneur did not participate in the procurement of other procuring entities. The current amount of her contracts with the ME “Organizational and Analytical Service” is UAH 18 mln.

Participation in the procurement of only one procuring entity, as well as being awarded in Prozorro immediately after the start of entrepreneurial activity, is not prohibited by law. At the same time, let’s agree that in the case of the city council of Dnipro, this story looks extremely suspicious. 

By the way, this practice was used by them before. In 2018, individual entrepreneur Kolosova L.V. began to receive contracts from the “Organizational and Analytical Service” the next month after registration. And before that, in 2017, the police investigated a criminal proceeding on the fictitiousness of tender agreements of the municipal enterprise.

Over the past year, the Dnipro ME “Organizational and Analytical Service” had two more contractors with a slightly longer history — Atma-News LLC (existing since 2007) and IE Oleynikov O. O. (existing since 2017). They account for agreements worth UAH 9.5 mln, most of which were concluded in April-May 2022. But even these two contractors on Prozorro mostly work with the “Organizational and Analytical Service.”

Atma-News LLC is owned by Kudinova Olena Vladyslavivna. Dnipro media outlet “Litsa” calls her a relative of Hennadii Korban.

More Dnipro advertising

The second major procuring entity of such services in Dnipro was the Department for Local Self-Government, Internal and Information Policy of the Dnipro City Council. In the first year of the full-scale war, it signed contracts for UAH 15.2 mln.

The largest amount of funds falls on IE Tarasenko O.M. — UAH 7.9 mln. Thus, in 2023, she is to be paid UAH 4.8 mln for the promotion of information on the activities of the city council and its subordinate enterprises on Facebook. The cost of services in particular includes a targeted advertising campaign, remarketing setup, 24/7 technical support, development of creative advertising products. Tarasenko provided similar services in 2022. Then two agreements were concluded with her: one in May for UAH 1.8 mln, the other in August for UAH 1.3 mln. 

IE Serhieyeva O. M will also be paid for the coverage of the activities of local authorities in social networks — UAH 7 mln. Only here, the agreements concern not only Facebook, but also Telegram. UAH 4.8 mln of the cost of the services in 2023 includes the placement of information messages and explanations, expansion of the audience of subscribers, provision of media support, copywriting and rewriting of texts. Individual entrepreneur Serhieyeva also provided similar services during 2022 for UAH 2.2 mln.

And the least money spent on advertising from the department falls on IE Hryshchenko A.H. — UAH 146,000, and IE Vershynina S.H. — UAH 110,000.

Advertising in Kryvyi Rih

During the first year of the full-scale war, the Institute for the Development of Kryvyi Rih of the Kryvyi Rih City Council concluded advertising contracts for UAH 17.4 mln.

In 2022, the city spent:

• UAH 800,000 for “services to cover the safety and protection of residents, the implementation of social and humanitarian programs, the work of critical infrastructure objects and other important information under a special legal regime (martial law)” through radio and television;
• UAH 322,000 for similar services on the Internet and in printed periodicals.

For 2023, more plans are visible on Prozorro. The Institute for the Development of Kryvyi Rih wants to spend UAH 11.3 mln to inform the population about the work of local authorities under martial law, in particular, about the implementation of social and humanitarian programs, on radio and television. We are talking about 2,000 minutes on the radio stations “Radio Piatnytsia,” “NRJ,” “Perets FM,” “Stilnoe,” “Horod FM,” “RADIO KRYVBAS,” and 5,250 minutes on two TV channels: “Pershyi Miskyi” and Public Television of Dnipro “OTV.” The contract was concluded with ART-STYLE group LLC.

Another UAH 4.95 mln will be used to inform the population about the activities of the city council in the press and on the Internet. In particular, we are talking about the placement of information materials on the following Internet resources: “Kryvbas On-Line,” “Puls,” “Pershyi Miskyi,” “Informator,” “0564.ua” — and in the printed publications “Puls,” “Moya Hazeta Domashnia” in Kryvyi Rih, “Vecher,” “VEK.Vestnik Kryvbassa.” The contract was awarded to KRYVBAS ONLINE INFORMATION AGENCY LLC. The company was founded in 2009 and is owned by Yaroslav Hyvel, who is a member of the Dnipro City Council.

Not with Dnipropetrovsk Oblast alone

The largest procuring entities of advertising over the past year were two large state-owned companies: JSC CB PRIVATBANK — UAH 40.1 mln (not subject to general procurement rules) and JSC UKRPOSHTA — UAH 23.9 mln. These tenders are conducted not at the expense of the budget, but for money from entrepreneurial activities.

PrivatBank mainly ordered placement of information and advertising materials in the media, radio, and television, services of internal PR campaigns, creation of a reputation and communication strategy, SEO-optimization, etc.

In “Ukrposhta,” the largest amount of expenses falls on advertising on the Internet — UAH 13.2 mln. First, in August, the procuring entity signed an agreement for UAH 18 mln, but in the end, the volumes were reduced to UAH 2.5 mln. Another contract for UAH 10.7 mln was signed at the end of December 2022. Almost UAH 6 mln is provided for the marketing research “Tayemnyi Pokupets,” which will be carried out until 2025.

SE “Center for Protection of Ukrainian Information Space” concluded advertising contracts for UAH 16.8 mln during the first year of the full-scale invasion. UAH 9.6 mln in 2022 was spent on the creation and distribution of information audiovisual products on the air of the TV channels STB, Novyi Kanal, 2+2, Tet, Plusplus, M1, BIHUDI, OTSE, M2. The agreement was concluded with MEDIA SCOPE GLOBAL LLC.

UAH 3.7 mln was spent on monitoring information in the domestic media, another UAH 1.4 mln was allocated for these services in 2023. All three contracts were concluded with LLC MEDIATEKA.

And though not so expensive, but a very unusual tender was conducted in Zhytomyr Oblast. The Oliyivska hromada decided to purchase calendars with photos of members of their local council. The residents disliked the idea — ATO veteran and volunteer Oleksandr Shevtsov made sure that the story got publicity. It was he who submitted an application to the police. In the end, the contract was terminated, the official grounds “the impossibility of the Contractor’s fulfillment of the Procuring Entity’s requirement.” The supplier must also return all funds to the procuring entity. According to Suspilne, at the beginning of February 2023, criminal proceedings were opened under this case and a verification was conducted.

This publication was prepared with the financial support of the European Union. Its content is the sole responsibility of Transparency International Ukraine and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.