Back
Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
5 billions on Kharkiv roads: how Kyrylo Tymoshenko and Yurii Holyk opened a budget stream for Avtomahistral-Pivden
Most of the multi-million road repair tenders in Kharkiv region are won by the Dnipro-linked firm Avtomahistral-Pivden, which is connected to the Deputy Head of the Office of the President, Kyrylo Tymoshenko.
Today one of the main companies that builds and repairs roads in Kharkiv region is TOV Avtomahistral-Pivden. If you open the ProZorro procurement system, you’ll see that this firm participates in almost all tenders for repairing highways in the region, and it confidently wins the majority of them over competitors.
These remarkable successes of one of Ukraine’s many construction companies are explained quite simply. Avtomahistral-Pivden shows a clear link to Yurii Holyk, the top PR person for the "Great Construction" program, and to the chief curator of that presidential project, Deputy Head of the Office of the President Kyrylo Tymoshenko. But first, it’s worth taking a closer look at Avtomahistral-Pivden’s winning streak in Kharkiv tenders.
9 of fat tenders in five months
For example, in April Avtomahistral-Pivden won a tender to build a transport interchange on the Kyiv–Kharkiv–Dovzhanskyi state highway. For this work the firm will receive almost 480 million hryvnias. In addition, on that same road TOV is to repair the pavement for around half a billion hryvnias. That tender was won at the end of this winter. Overall, the Kyiv–Kharkiv–Dovzhanskyi route is a very tasty piece for Avtomahistral-Pivden, since at the beginning of the year two more contracts for repairing that road were signed. According to one tender, the firm will receive about 650 million hryvnias for repairing one section of that road. Another section of that same route will be repaired by Avtomahistral-Pivden for almost 800 million hryvnias. That tender was signed at the beginning of the year.
Additionally, this year the firm won a bid to repair part of the Zolochiv–Maksymivka route. For that it will receive 670 million hryvnias. And the fattest contract for Avtomahistral-Pivden turned out to be the tender to repair the Kharkiv–Zolochiv road. For that work the budget will pay almost 1,2 billion hryvnias.
Thus, in total over five months of 2021 the firm Avtomahistral-Pivden signed documents to carry out as many as 9 tenders for road repairs in Kharkiv region. The total amount of these tenders is almost 5 billion hryvnias. Avtomahistral-Pivden had previously won road repair tenders in Kharkiv region. But, according to ProZorro, this firm only gathered contracts totaling 5–6 billion hryvnias over the course of 4 years, from 2017 to 2020. Now they secure that amount in tenders in just five months of the current year.
Moreover, according to ProZorro overall across Ukraine Avtomahistral-Pivden has won tenders worth almost 29 billion hryvnias. It turns out that one-sixth of that sum will come to the private company from road repair contracts in just one region — Kharkiv.
The firm’s Dnipro roots
This sharp jump in tender victories for Avtomahistral-Pivden in Kharkiv coincided with the appointment of Aina Tymchuk as head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, who took office at the end of November 2020. Let’s recall that Tymchuk is a creation of Kyrylo Tymoshenko, who lately fully controls regional policy at the Office of the President. Tymchuk herself, like Tymoshenko, is from Dnipro and spent most of her adult life there holding high positions in local government. Even now she visits Kharkiv mostly "on raids," which, however, does not prevent her from successfully promoting the interests of Deputy Head of the OP Tymoshenko in Kharkiv region.
The company Avtomahistral-Pivden is formally registered in Odesa. But according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, this firm has four branches, one of which is located in Dnipro and is called the "Dnipropetrovsk Construction Department" of TOV Avtomahistral-Pivden.
Additionally, according to information on the Inspection Portal website, last year the State Emergency Service inspected this firm and official documents state that Avtomahistral-Pivden’s main place of business activity is the city of Dnipro.
At the same time, Avtomahistral-Pivden has a long trail of involvement in criminal proceedings over recent years. For example, in 2019 the police of Dnipropetrovsk region investigated a case alleging that officials of the Dnipropetrovsk Road Service colluded with representatives of Avtomahistral-Pivden and embezzled budget funds during road construction or repair in the region. At that time a court banned the Dnipropetrovsk Road Service from transferring funds to Avtomahistral-Pivden’s accounts.
In 2019 there was a criminal proceeding concerning Kyivavtodor’s activities, in which Avtomahistral-Pivden also figured. The case materials noted that Kyivavtodor officials might have colluded with representatives of several private firms, among them Avtomahistral-Pivden. Investigators suspected the defendants of embezzling budget funds during the capital repair of an overpass on Zabolotnoho Street in Kyiv.
Also, in 2019 Avtomahistral-Pivden was suspected of tax evasion. Then a court even ordered an expert examination to determine whether the private firm had indeed failed to pay part of its taxes.
However, all these legal troubles do not hinder Avtomahistral-Pivden’s successful absorption of budget funds. The patronage of high-ranking officials practically guarantees both protection from criminal prosecution and victory in large tenders.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko’s role in Avtomahistral-Pivden’s success
It’s worth recalling that Avtomahistral-Pivden was one of the largest contractors of Ukravtodor back in the presidency of Petro Poroshenko. That was reported in an investigation by the journalists of Nashi Hroshi. At that time Avtomahistral-Pivden was actively assisted by the head of Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Reznichenko. Yurii Holyk worked as Reznichenko’s freelance adviser; Reznichenko cooperated with Holyk when both were managers at the UMH media holding.
In the Dnipropetrovsk ODA Holyk was responsible for repair, reconstruction and construction of infrastructure projects, and he was also involved in organizing tenders through the ProZorro system. Although Holyk effectively ran construction in the region, he remained a freelance adviser, did not file electronic declarations and was practically invulnerable to corruption accusations.
As for Kyrylo Tymoshenko, media say he has long known Holyk through his father — businessman and Dnipropetrovsk regional council deputy Vladlen Tymoshenko. Kyrylo Tymoshenko’s father was director of the Passage shopping center, which belonged to Borys Filatov and Hennadii Korban, with whom Holyk actively cooperated while working in the Dnipropetrovsk ODA.
Moreover, like Holyk, Tymoshenko worked in 2014 as a political PR specialist with Poroshenko’s team. Tymoshenko and Holyk joined Poroshenko’s team thanks to Reznichenko, who is related to the former UMH owner, Kharkiv native Borys Lozhkin. After Poroshenko’s election victory Lozhkin headed his administration and helped the relative and top manager of his holding advance their careers.
After Volodymyr Zelensky’s victory Reznichenko and Holyk left the Dnipropetrovsk ODA, while Tymoshenko, thanks to his role in Zelensky’s election campaign, rose to the position of Deputy Head of the Office of the President and quite quickly brought his experienced friend Holyk to Kyiv to work on construction and tender matters. First as an adviser to Prime Minister Oleksii Honcharuk, and later as an adviser on "Great Construction." In both the Cabinet and the OP Holyk oversaw construction and repair of infrastructure projects without holding formal staff positions. Following Holyk, Tymoshenko also brought Reznichenko back into the fold, who at the end of 2020 was again appointed head of Dnipropetrovsk region.
Returning to Kharkiv region, which after Tymchuk became head of the RSA turned into a real gold mine for Kyrylo Tymoshenko. With the help of Holyk, the curator of "Great Construction," the formally Odesa-based but essentially Dnipro firm Avtomahistral-Pivden began to win most of the tenders in Kharkiv. And former adviser to the Head of the OP Andrii Yermak, Ihor Umanskyi, has already told how budget millions are being absorbed on "Great Construction" projects.
And it must be said that little has changed since Umanskyi’s revelations. Companies of the so-called construction cartel continue to successfully win multi-million tenders. Avtomahistral-Pivden holds a special position even within that "cartel." According to Nashi Hroshi, Avtomahistral-Pivden became a founder of the National Association of Road Workers of Ukraine, and thanks to active lobbying by Holyk and Tymoshenko in 2020 the tender documentation was changed so that almost exclusively members of NARWU are admitted to large tenders. In this way Avtomahistral-Pivden gained an advantage in the market and in tenders, which allows it to take all the "fat" contracts in Kharkiv region.
Thus, it is impossible not to notice that all Avtomahistral-Pivden’s successes are directly linked to Kyrylo Tymoshenko and his younger partner Holyk, which allowed the Deputy Head of the Office of the President to become the main "great builder" in Kharkiv region, and beyond.
Tetyana Synytsia
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "5 мільярдів на харківських дорогах: як Кирило Тимошенко та Юрій Голик відкрили бюджетний потік для «Автомагістраль-Південь»". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
