The COVID-19 pandemic continues for the second year, which has significantly affected lifestyles around the world. If earlier in Ukraine only individual small private schools studied remotely, now it is a daily practice throughout the country. 

The sudden transition to distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic has also affected the quality of education. For at least 55% of schools, remote learning has turned to be a problem because teachers have never taught through a screen before. They had to figure out new training formats on their own: set up Zoom, Kahoot, Google Classroom, and some other platforms. 

However, even if teachers knew what to do, they might simply not have the conditions for this. To teach children remotely, the least one needs to have is a laptop and the internet. At the same time, almost 2/3 of teachers and students did not have the necessary equipment at home, and 1/2 mentioned slow internet. Teaching lessons from an empty classroom at school is neither an option for many people. After all, 40% of schools, mostly located in villages or small towns, do not have access to high-speed internet. 

 

Laptop for each teacher

 

To at least partially solve the problem with distance learning, the state has started purchasing laptops for teachers. According to the Ministry of Digital Transformation, more than 106,000 teachers need them. Most of all, teachers from the Lviv oblast — 10,885, the Zakarpattia oblast — 7,469, the Ivano-Frankivsk oblast — 7,347, and the Ternopil oblast — 6,055, need laptops.

In 2021, a subvention of UAH 980 mln was allocated from the national budget for laptops. This money is used on the basis of co-financing. For example, a subvention covers 95% of expenses for mountain localities, and another 5% must be covered by the local budget. For Kyiv and cities with a population of 40+ thousand people — 70% at the expense of the subvention and 30% at the expense of local budgets. Such expensive procurement transactions are also very risky.

“There are enough frauds in public procurement of equipment in the field of education. For example, creating special requirements for computers that can only be met by one equipment supplier, or prescribing certain programs in technical documentation (e-textbooks or learning management systems). This allows to maximize the cost of computers, which also eliminates competitors during bidding,” wrote Mykhailo Fedorov, minister of digital transformation in the column for UP.Zhyttia.

Therefore, to prevent corruption and procurement of low-quality equipment, the Ministry of Education and Science has spelled out clear requirements to computers and provided general recommendations to the tender requirements, where, in particular, the expected cost of one laptop is set — UAH 20,000.  

 

Situation with the procurement of laptops 

 

It was planned that tenders should be announced in July-August, and by the end of 2021, teachers would have laptops. According to our calculations, at the end of November, 38,827 laptops for UAH 695 mln was purchased in Prozorro. Most of them were purchased in the Dnipropetrovsk oblast — 5,296 for UAH 96.4 mln, 4,134 for UAH 70.7 mln in the Odesa oblast, and 3,886 for UAH 67.7 mln in the Kyiv oblast. 

According to the data of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, as of November 24, 14,642 teachers from 8 oblasts have already received the purchased laptops. Although not all oblasts have already signed contracts, the first tenders were announced everywhere. 

 

What laptops are purchased

 

For teachers, 5 models of laptops from 5 different manufacturers that meet the requirements of the Ministry of Education and Science are purchased. Half of them is the HP 250 G8 model. Almost 20,000 of them were purchased. Acer TravelMate TP214-53 comes second. These laptops account for 27% of all procurement transactions. The third most popular model is Lenovo V14 G2 ITL. Such laptops were purchased for teachers from the Rivne and Cherkasy oblasts. Less popular are Dell Latitude 3510 and Impression 157 ES.

The scheme that the SBU prevented

 

On September 13, representatives of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the Ministry of Education and Science, and the SBU held a briefing, where they reported a major corruption scheme organized to purchase laptops for teachers, which could cost the country UAH 300 mln of losses. According to Illia Vitiuk, acting head of the Cybersecurity Department of the SBU, individuals wanted to organize collusion in tenders for laptops and introduced themselves as people from the Ministry of Digital Transformation. They allegedly offered participants to raise prices at tenders.

The amount of the scam would account for 30% of the subvention. Law enforcement officers spoke with market participants (this is about 30 IT companies), debunked the myth that this scheme was given cover by the Ministry of Digital Transformation, and told firms to abandon criminal plans before it was too late. The head of the Ministry, Mykhailo Fedorov, said that contracts across the country were sent for re-examination, and the subvention would not stop.

 

Reducing laptop prices 

 

After a lengthy review of tenders in November in seven oblasts of Ukraine, immediately after signing contracts, procuring entities and suppliers concluded additional agreements. They reduced prices for one laptop by 3.6-8.5%. 

For example, in the largest order, from the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration, for approximately UAH 106 mln, the winner was awarded in early September. However, the agreement was signed only on October 19. TOV Vyrobnycha Firma Servis was awarded in both lots of the tender, having offered a discount of 1% of the expected cost.  

The agreement was concluded so late because the Ministry of Digital Transformation conducted a re-examination of the project. This is precisely how the procuring entity responded to the request of the State Audit Service when it checked the procurement. Along with the main contract, an additional agreement was also published to reduce the price of HP 250 G8 laptops by 8%.

TOV Vyrobnycha Firma Servis was founded in Dnipro back in 1998. Hennadii Mashynson is specified as one of its co-owners, who, since 2018, is an expert advisor on a voluntary basis to Dnipro mayor Borys Filatov. Over the past 5 years, the company has received contracts in Prozorro worth UAH 509 mln. The main procuring entity is the Dnipro City Council. 

The same situation was also observed in the Odesa oblast at the second most expensive tender in the country. 4,100 laptops were purchased for teachers, the starting amount of bidding was UAH 82.8 mln. At the auction in early October, TOV Emens won with an offer of UAH 77.6 mln. The company was ready to sell Acer TravelMate TP214-53 laptops for UAH 18,800 each. However, on November 12, simultaneously with the main contract, the procuring entity and the supplier entered into an additional agreement. It reduced the price of one laptop to UAH — by 8.5%. TOV Emens was founded in Kyiv in November 2018, it belongs to Nataliia Chechenii-Dmytrenko, who also manages the company. 

Prices were also reduced in Chernivtsi. There, TOV BMS Tekhno purchased 1,450 laptops for UAH 29 mln. The company offered the HP 250 G8 model at a price of UAH 19,400. The contract together with the additional agreement was concluded on November 3, and the price of the laptop was reduced to UAH 18,700 (3.6%). The Kyiv BMS Tekhno is owned by Serhii Balaniuk, Serhii Volok, and Taras Shevchenko (director). A year and a half ago the police investigated overpricing in the procurement of laptops for teachers of the Kherson oblast in this company for UAH 11.65 mln. 

Prices were also reduced in the Kirovohrad, Chernihiv, Poltava, and Volyn oblasts.

 

There is still a month left to purchase and receive laptops for teachers at the current subvention. You can monitor progress on dashboards from the Ministry of Digital Transformation. However, even if the funds are used in full, the need will not be closed in one year. And in addition to equipment, schools will need to be provided with fast internet.

When it comes to school education, society is usually sympathetic: teachers’ salaries are small, and the state does not allocate anything — schools have nothing. Therefore, we need to help financially. It is still not uncommon for parents to give money for lockers or curtains in the classroom. Or they unite to purchase multimedia equipment, promoting it through the draft participatory budget. And almost necessarily — they buy basic consumables on their own: toilet paper, soap, napkins, disinfectants.

The explanation for this is “the state does not have funds” or “the district does not allocate funds.” However, active parents, especially those who have attended the school of sharing community experience “SOS parents” know that in reality the situation is slightly different. Usually, a district department of education does not allocate funds for what it is not forced to allocate. At the same time, some school principals still do not write requests for funding because they believe that funds will not be allocated to them anyway. However, this is how the budget is formed. And if the request is not sent, then you will definitely not be allocated any money. Instead, parents have to give money.

So, somewhere the parents of students have long forgotten what it means to buy curtains and soap for school, and somewhere the cleaner asks the parents’ committee to buy her new mops. Because “who else should she ask, the state does not give anything.”

In fact, spending on education in the budgets of local communities is not only large amounts, but also fairly protected items of expenditure. For example, in the capital, the education budget is sometimes up to half of all expenditures. This year it has reached almost UAH 24.9 bln — 43% of all expenses. There are expenses for kindergartens, schools, and other municipal educational institutions.

Of course, most of the money is spent on remuneration. For example, in schools this year, it amounts to about 77% of expenses. Another part of the funds should be allocated for utilities, food, medicines, and other mandatory things. The rest is distributed by district education departments at their discretion.

For example, last year, when the pandemic dramatically changed the usual order of priorities, district education departments urgently had to buy masks, disinfectants, and then laptops and internet services for teachers who worked remotely. The number and volume of these procurement transactions were decided locally, depending on the order of schools and real needs.

And the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv, at the height of the second wave of Covid-19 incidence in the autumn of 2020, decided to install children’s playgrounds in every school. The project was even shown to the head of the Ministry of Education and Science Serhii Shkarlet and named part of the NUS project “Street Space.”

The concept of the New Ukrainian School really implies more activities for primary school students and the availability of creative spaces. However, nothing is known about the separate project “Street Space.”

Playgrounds were purchased for UAH 20.6 mln. The specification to the contract refers to 38 schools, but each element was purchased at 15, and the Ministry of Education and Science wrote that they were installed in 15 educational institutions. Accordingly, each cost the local budget from UAH 500,000 to UAH 1.37 mln (more likely).

The purchase of playground equipment itself took place with the lowest possible savings: tender with an expected cost of UAH 20.7 mln was won by the supplier who offered the price of UAH 20.62 mln. Interestingly, the winner of the auction was TOV Budremservis, which specializes more in interior repairs. In Kyiv, this company won tenders of Kyivzelenbud, Darnytskyi Capital Investment Department, and Education Department of the same district. It has experience working with playgrounds, but this is its first such large order of playing complexes and at the same time the most expensive contract in Prozorro so far.

To clarify what kind of mandatory program made it so expensive to equip the street space of schools last year, we turned to the Department of Education and science of the KCSA. They do not know about such a program and explained that the decision on the procurement in the district is made locally. We also asked other districts of the capital if they had similar systematic procurement transactions of sites for the NUS, and received negative answers.

The Department of Education of the Darnytskyi district also confirmed that the playgrounds did not concern the NUS, and the funds for their procurement went under the budget item “Provision of secondary education by secondary education institutions.” In other words, these are ordinary funds for organizing the educational process. Just this year, this district has decided that it is most appropriate to use UAH 20 mln for playgrounds, and not for some other things.

In general, the district can be understood — after all, playgrounds are almost a sacred object: everyone wants them and there are never too many of them. However, it turned out that the mandatory installation of playgrounds is not always a good thing. Especially, when no one asked for them.

In one school of the district, a place for a large playing complex, where children will spend time, was found only by the fence, near a street with busy traffic. In other schools, slides and tools were placed altogether on lawns between trees, close to classroom windows, contrary to the standards of building codes. In the Sloviansk school, you could go down such a slide directly into the wall of the school and touch either a sewer manhole or a lightning rod. After a scandal in local communities and an appeal to the head of the district education department, some of these dangerously installed complexes were simply removed, where to — it is unknown.

The parents of school No. 111, where extended day groups have nowhere to spend time at all, told (and the administration confirmed) that they did not get a single playing complex. And two schools of the district got playgrounds both according to the purchase of the district, and within the implementation of the participatory budget project. That is, to put it mildly, confusion and installation for the sake of installation.

As we have already mentioned, often for cities, playgrounds are the golden standard. However, when it comes to education, the priorities are still slightly different: schools usually need insulation, repairs, arrangement, or repair of sports halls and playgrounds for physical education.

But these things take longer to plan, are harder to implement, and require construction supervision and a lot of responsibility. Just like providing schools with toilet paper/soap/disinfectants/mops requires calculations of school applications, additional orders, etc. The installation of playing complexes — where they are needed, and where not so much — is quick and easy: a month of work — and 20 mln gets spent at the end of the budget year.

What can parents do about it? To control what the school where your child is studying buys, you can start monitoring their procurement. TI Ukraine created a handbook with instructions how to do this. It describes in detail how to search for school procurement transactions, in particular using the map “What does your school buy?”, write information requests and report procurement violations to law enforcement and supervisory bodies.

The phrase “And now we are collecting money for curtains” became a meme in the community of Ukrainian parents of schoolchildren. Until a few years ago, few parent-teacher meetings at the beginning of the new school year could do without this call from teachers or representatives of the parent committee.

“Now I ignore a group of active parents who always come up with some purchases, referring to the request of the school. I’m fed up with it, and I don’t see the point. However, in elementary school, we were all quick at paying for some furniture and household goods. Curtains, for example, were bought twice in the first four years,” says Olha, mother of a Kyiv schoolgirl.

Where do the previous curtains disappear? For many years, parents from educational institutions in different parts of Ukraine have asked this question.

“The children ruined it,” “cleaning is more expensive than new ones,” “the previous class bought with their money and took it away, moving to another office,” “we need to update, don’t you want comfort for your children” — typical reasons were given to the parents we asked.

“I preferred not to argue about those curtains and ask why we need new ones in two years. I know for sure that the first ones were white tulle and the new ones were the same, only with some drapery,” Olha recalls with a smile.

However, curtains like other goods necessary to ensure the educational process must be purchased and are purchased with budget funds.

In the last two years alone, almost UAH 40 mln has been spent on curtains, drapes, blinds, shutters, and tulle for schools and kindergartens.

In 2020, they were purchased more actively: then it took UAH 24.5 mln. This year, in nine months, UAH 14.5 mln was spent on such a need.

The Kyiv oblast accounts for the highest number of curtains — UAH 7 mln.

The Lviv oblast ranks second — UAH 3.7 mln was spent.

The Sumy and Kharkiv regions share third position, with expenses of UAH 3.2 mln for curtains. The Chernivtsi region, on the contrary, tails behind in comparison with them — a little more than UAH 170,000 was paid for curtains.

You can check whether your school is among these procurement transactions in the table.

Even if you couldn’t find your school there, we recommend that you check the procurement transactions of the school itself or the Department of Education to which it is subordinate on the online school procurement map or DOZORRO.

Looking at what your school has purchased is useful to understand what its needs have already been funded. After all, even though municipal schools and kindergartens are supported at the expense of local budgets, cash grabs from parents are still widespread.

Until a few years ago, teachers themselves often raised money for school needs. However, the Ministry of Education and Science clarified that they did not have the right to do this. In particular, in 2018 and 2020, it sent letters to teachers stressing the free nature of school education and that any form of pressure on parents to pay funds or purchase something is illegal.

However, in some places the money is collected not by teachers and the administration of educational institutions, but by the parents themselves. More precisely, their committees. It is almost impossible to bring them to justice through forced levies because legally, they have nothing to do with the financial affairs of a school or kindergarten.

This works most effectively with first-graders and in primary school, when children are still sitting in the same class. Then parents strive to make this room as comfortable as possible. The question of how much the District Department of Education spent on the school and what exactly the director of the institution ordered for the year does not yet arise at the start of school.

Natalka from Kyiv told us about a similar algorithm in a municipal kindergarten her child attends in the overpopulated district Osokorky.

“Although the kindergarten is entirely new, it was put into operation together with our micro district, but the purchase of decor and arrangement in groups was shifted to the parents for the most part. Although it is difficult to understand now, were these critical needs for the group, or did the parents just want to do everything as good as possible, in their opinion,” the mother recalls.

“The first needs — the very same curtains, a rug, something of small furniture for the group — that’s what the teachers told us. But now, when we have been in this group for the third year, and the parents’ committee is still coming up with new expenses (the last one was climate technology), I am already more confident telling the group of parents that I have had enough and will not pay,” says Natalka.

If you decide to help a school or kindergarten yourself, one of the most secure ways to do this is to transfer funds to the treasury account of the educational institution.

The local department and the Department of Education also have such accounts. You can specify the intended purpose of the money: for example, that you transfer it for cabinet repairs or equipment procurement. Further, these funds are spent in the same way as budget funds. In other words, all procurement transactions for them will be made through Prozorro.

What else can be done to help the school in a convenient way, as well as how to help allocate funds for school needs, can be found in the special handbook for parents. There are instructions on how to properly issue parental contributions, and how to write requests to the school administration or the Department of Education. These explanations will help you find out what funds have already been allocated for, and inform you about the need to finance something else.

The material was co-authored with Yaroslav Pylypenko, TI Ukraine’s public procurement specialist. 

 

All primary school students in Kyiv have breakfast at school, fully paid for from the city budget. Each district spends about UAH 10-55 mln on such food, depending on the population. Suppliers are interested in this market, although it’s volatile.

Perhaps everyone in the country has already heard about the program of reforming school meals, in which Olena Zelenska, the President’s wife engages. The first lady raises the issue of food quality in educational institutions, diversity, changing the balance of dishes towards vegetables and proteins instead of the predominance of carbohydrates and unhealthy fats in the menu. Chef Ievgen Klopotenko created the innovative school menus according to the new standards.

“Instead, at our school, children eat burgers every day, which are not even always with meat and do not necessarily contain vegetables,” complains Natalka, the mother of a schoolgirl from the Dniprovskyi district of the capital. Parents are outraged, and children don’t eat everything.

“Burger food is still an exception. In this educational institution, it is connected exclusively with technical reasons — the food hall and canteen of the school are under repair. We just can’t cook hot dishes there, so we have to bring ready-made ones,” Ms Olesia, the representative of the supplier of schools of the Dniprovskyi district explained to us. Repairs began in August, and it is not yet known exactly when they will end.

Catering services in educational institutions of Kyiv in this area are provided by TOV Pontem.UA. The history of the arrival of this enterprise with Lithuanian roots on the Kyiv market was connected with the scandal at a school of the Darnytskyi district, what we wrote about earlier. However, after the crisis, Pontem feels confident again and now serves schools in the Darnytskyi, Dniprovskyi, and Svyatoshynskyi districts, which in terms of the number of children and cost are close to half of the entire market of the capital.

In other districts of Kyiv, tenders of education departments are traditionally won by district ME of the corresponding profile. Interestingly, regardless of the supplier (ME or TOV) and the course of the auction, the price of a school breakfast in Kyiv is approximately the same everywhere — UAH 32. But one of the districts of Kyiv this year broke all pricing records.

The cheapest breakfasts

This school year, children of the Pechersk district receive breakfast worth UAH 8.4 per portion. Even Valentyn Mondryivskyi, specialized deputy of the Kyiv mayor, was indignant with such an unprecedented price for budget breakfasts; he promised to monitor the quality of food in the area especially closely and threatened officials with consequences.

Budget savings, thanks to the record price of breakfast, were provided by a tender held in March of this year. Procurement with an expected cost of UAH 7.6 mln after a long struggle was won by an enterprise from another city, which offered a price of UAH 2 mln. In other words, the cost in the agreement was more than three times less than expected.

TOV Kontrakt Prodrezerv 5 from Dnipro estimated their catering service at this amount. This company has extensive experience in providing catering services to state institutions of the Dnipropetrovsk region. The cost of its contracts for the largest procuring entity, the Department of Humanitarian Policy of the Dnipro City Council, amounted to more than UAH 1.5 bln. This year, for the first time, the company tried its hand at Kyiv tenders. Its abnormally low price for procurement in the Pechersk district was justified by its desire to prove itself in the market. To achieve this, it was necessary to get on it, even resorting to dumping. In justifying its reliability, Kontrakt Prodrezerv 5 showed its financial result for the past year, and stated that it was ready and could afford to conduct knowingly unprofitable activity and provide students with full-fledged, balanced, and high-quality food at its expense.

Photo: Facebook Briscola kids food (TOV Kontrakt Prodrezerv 5)

Now, the Pechersk District State Administration, where we applied with a request, assured that the breakfast portions prepared by this supplier correspond to the menu agreed by the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection and the terms of the tender documentation. There were no complaints from school leaders, the district’s Education Department reported.

The same Dnipro company has already entered the fight for tenders in the Dniprovskyi, Svyatoshynskyi, and Darnytskyi districts of the capital. These districts no longer have their own ME for school meals and their niche was occupied by a private Pontem.UA, which this year still has retained its position in the fight against competitors.

How does all this competition affect the quality of school breakfasts — does the market give victory only to the best? In fact, this is not entirely true.

Multi-profile or binary meals

First, the approximate menu is common for all schools. And now, there is an instruction to make it multi-profile, that is, dishes to choose from. According to the responses that we received from the city’s district education departments, multi-profile meals already cover either all schools in the districts, or 80-90% in some. 

However, we decided to clarify what is meant under “multi-profile meals” in the districts and found that these are actually two portions to choose from. For example: a cutlet with buckwheat or meatballs with potatoes, or pancakes with sour cream or pancakes with jam. That is, the choice is between two similar types of breakfast, and not several fundamentally different dishes, such as a side dish with meat, or casserole, or vegetable stew, or fish with a side dish. So, sometimes multi is actually a double. However, in some schools, this is still a choice of several options.

“My daughter was just thrilled when it became possible to choose breakfast from several types of salad, side dishes, meat, and desserts,” recalls Oksana from Kyiv, whose daughter is studying at a school in the Desnianskyi district. In this area, educational institutions have financial autonomy and each school independently conducts its procurement, including food. In fact, now almost all of them are won by the local ME Zenit. When the school makes its procurement, it is easier to control it, both for the institution itself and for parents. In such cases, there are no desperate comments from parents under posts with photos of the real menu on Facebook pages asking “Where is this?!”, “Come to our school and see the reality!,” as is often the case with official pages of the Department of Education and district departments. 

However, good results can also be achieved when food is purchased centrally, but this is controlled by parents. For example, the “Kyivan Rus” school was even made a separate lot in the procurement of the district to make it easier to control the quality.

The KCSA also notes that the full introduction of multi-profile meals and their quality depend on the level of equipment of school food departments. The fact is that catering services actually mean that the supplier buys food and recruits employees, and cooking takes place in the same kitchens of our schools. And, accordingly, just as there are schools that differ in age and level of equipment, their food halls are just as different. Therefore, funds for updating the equipment of food departments are now allocated from a subvention of the state budget as part of the “Capable School for Better Results” program.

221 school buses were bought in 8 months of the year in Ukraine. UAH 404 mln was spent on transport.

At the same time, according to the data of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, at the beginning of the year, hub schools alone needed 450 buses, which is twice as much as was bought in 2021. According to the current sanitary regulations, children who live more than 2 kilometers away from the school must be taken to it. 

Among the leaders according to the number of purchased school buses are: Dnipropetrovsk region (34), Poltava region (26), and Mykolaiv region (20).

However, this year, in the Zakarpattia, Lviv, Rivne, and Vinnytsia oblasts school buses haven’t been purchased yet. 

In general, over the past 3 years, more than UAH 2.1 bln. was spent on school buses. Almost all of them are produced in Ukraine. The highest number of purchased products was 506 of Ataman buses of the AT Cherkassy Bus. Etalon Corporation ranks second, with 450 buses purchased.

Mostly prices vary in the range of UAH 1.7-2.2 mln, depending on the model and characteristics of buses.

Read more in the article by Yaroslav Pylypenko.

The new school year starts offline, so, 4.2 mln students will go to school on September 1. For some, it is close to home, but many children will have to travel at least several kilometers. To hub schools alone, almost 100,000 children need transportation.

Hub schools are educational institutions created in the new amalgamated territorial communities. Instead of maintaining a small school in each village or town, one large school is formed per community. Other schools become branches of the main one, or they may be closed if they become unnecessary. This is how it is possible to create educational institutions with good repairs and equipment, equipped classrooms, and a sufficient number of subject teachers.

Children mostly need to be driven to such schools. It is the same with students of other institutions of general secondary education if the distance to school is too big.  This is spelled out in the State Sanitary Regulations — local authorities should organize transportation for schoolchildren who live 2 kilometers and more away from the school.

This entails rental or procurement of buses. If the local authorities want to purchase them, but do not have enough funds, they can apply for co-financing from the state budget. In 2021, for this purpose, the government allocated UAH 490 mln, in 2020 — UAH 600 mln, and in 2019 — UAH 500 mln. According to the Ministry of Education and Science, at the beginning of 2021, schools needed at least 450 more buses.

Procurement of school buses in Prozorro

This year, local authorities purchased 221 buses worth UAH 404 mln. In 2020, 523 vehicles were purchased for UAH 980 mln, and in 2019 – 390 vehicles for UAH 721 mln. Most buses are new, but sometimes used ones are also purchased.

We compared the declared demand for buses according to the Ministry of Education and Science with data on bus procurement in Prozorro as of August 25, 2021. In most regions, as of August, procurement did not meet the demand for buses for hub schools. However, some oblasts instead purchased more than they needed.

The leaders in the procurement of school buses were Dnipropetrovsk region (34), Poltava region (26), and Volyn (21). The Zakarpattia, Lviv, Rivne, and Vinnytsia oblasts haven’t purchased school buses yet.

Official information of the Ministry of Education and Science on the need of hub schools for buses is available as of January 1, 2021. However, now these numbers may be different. Last autumn, new territorial communities appeared that could create their hub schools. Ordinary institutions of general secondary education sometimes need buses as well.

Which buses are most often purchased in Prozorro?

Over the past 3 years, more than 80% of all purchased buses account for two vehicle types: Ataman and Etalon.

The most popular ones are the buses Ataman, produced by PAT Cherkassy Bus. 506 such buses have been purchased — this is 44.6% from the total number of buses. Model D093S2 was sold to schools, its all-wheel drive version D093S201, and the D093S4 version are tailored to the needs of children with reduced mobility.

The owners of the manufacturing company are:

• TOV Investments in Development, which belongs to Denys Kozlitin — 25%;
• ex-director Oleksandr Dorosh — 25%;
• Viktor Kovalenko — 9%;
• and 348 shareholders, including the current head of the company, Vitalii Raabe.

In the 2000s, the Cherkassy Bus was owned by Petro Poroshenko through the Bogdan Corporation. In 2009, he transferred the production to Oleh Svynarchuk, whose last name now is Hladkovskyi. In 2011, he removed the company from the Bogdan Corporation and registered it to TOV “Easy Life” Asset Management Company and Zaknax Trading Limited, a Cyprus firm.

39.7% (450) of the total number of purchased buses account for the Etalon buses. Prozorro sold the A08116SH model and the A08117SH version tailored to the needs of children with reduced mobility. Buses are produced by two companies from the Etalon Corporation: TOV Chernihiv Bus Factory and PrAT Boryspil Avtoplant. As far as the latter is concerned, a bankruptcy case was opened in 2021, but the Chernihiv branch of the plant is operating.

Chernihiv Bus Factory belongs to the Bodmin AG company (Switzerland) of Peter Schwotzer, TOV Bodmin-Ukraine of Volodymyr Butko, and TOV “Etalon” Logistics Center. The latter is owned by the same Bodmin-Ukraine and Volodymyr Butko. In turn, the Boryspil Avtoplant is owned by the same AT Bodmin AG and by its joint with Volodymyr Butko Ukrainian company TOV Kyrain.

The Bogdan buses ranked third. 99 of them were purchased in Prozorro, this is 8.7% from the total number. The A22412 model, produced by a subsidiary “Assembly Plant No. 1” and PAT Automobile Company “Bogdan Motors” was also purchased. In July of this year, the Commercial Court of the Dnipropetrovsk oblast declared the company bankrupt and began its dissolution.

66 buses, that is 5.3%, accounted for the newly produced buses ZAZ A08A2B-10. They are produced by PrAT Zaporizhzhia Automobile Building Plant. It belongs to Tariel Vasadze and another of his companies — PrAT Ukrainian Automobile Corporation.

Procuring entities also purchased 7 KrASZ buses. It was supposedly the new KrASZ P14SB1model. It is appears to be produced by Kharkiv TOV Manufacturing Group Auto-Holding, owned by Oleh Shablatovych. Previously, the company was owned by Larysa Sviatash, the wife of former MP Dmytro Sviatash (Party of Regions, “Revival”). The AMCU conducted research and established that the KrASZ buses are assembled on the basis of the PAZ 4234-04 bus produced by TOV Bus Factory (Russia). This company is included in the list of legal entities subject to sanctions.

How much do school buses cost?

Prices for school buses are almost the same this year. Although depending on the characteristics, their cost may vary within UAH 1 mln:

• Ataman D093S2 — UAH 1.8–2 mln;
• Ataman D093S201, all-wheel drive bus — UAH 2.4 mln;
• Ataman D093S4 (tailored to the needs of children with reduced mobility) — UAH 2.2 mln;
• Etalon A08116SH — UAH 1.7  – 2 mln;
• Etalon A08117SH (tailored to the needs of children with reduced mobility) — UAH 2.1 mln;
• Bogdan A22412 — UAH 1.9 mln;
• ZAZ A08A2B-10 — UAH 1.6 mln.

Who sells school buses in Prozorro?

During 2019-2021, 48 companies supplied buses through Prozorro. Most of them were sold by TOV Trade House Etalon Auto from the Etalon Corporation — for UAH 525 mln. This is a quarter of the total amount of such expenses.

The second ranked TOV Avto-Bus which supplied Ataman buses worth UAH 225 mln. The company belongs to the director Oleksandr Sviderko from the Khmelnytskyi region, who, at one time, was a specialist at TOV Inter Auto-Trading.

A Kharkiv firm PE Automobile Company Ukravtosnab also sold Ataman — it received an order for UAH 186 mln.

In addition to purchasing the buses, local authorities need to take care of drivers, their medical examination, technical inspection and transport service, and other organizational issues. Therefore, we hope that enough funds will be allocated for this, and children with teachers will be able to get to schools comfortably, even if during quarantines there is a risk that they will see each other in person less often than usual.