Embezzlement of Millions During the War: Head of Kyiv Perinatal Center Dmytro Hovseiev and His Deputies Exposed for Corrupt Tenders

Embezzlement of Millions During the War: Head of Kyiv Perinatal Center Dmytro Hovseiev and His Deputies Exposed for Corrupt Tenders

Dmytro Hovseiev heads the Kyiv Perinatal Center — he is an obstetrician-gynecologist by profession. One would think his main duty would be caring for the health of mothers and infants. Instead, investigators found that he created a criminal scheme to steal budget funds through state medical procurement — already under martial law.

Deputy Serhiy Tyshchenko and the public procurement officer Liudmyla Omelchuk joined the operation. Using their official positions, they steered state funds to “desired” companies. The pretrial investigation showed that the officials regularly colluded with commercial entities: they prepared tenders tailored to specific participants, artificially inflated the expected cost of procurements, and ensured victory for preselected firms. A number of private suppliers were involved in the unlawful scheme. They received insider information about upcoming tenders, agreed with the officials on favorable prices and conditions, and in return paid bribes for “correct” decisions. Hovseiev, Tyshchenko, and Omelchuk received illicit benefits from representatives of these companies.

The scale of the embezzlement is striking. In the 2024–2025 years the Kyiv Perinatal Center conducted procurements totaling nearly 116,7 million UAH, and a significant portion of those contracts went to a narrow circle of firms and individual entrepreneurs.

The private company “STM-Pharm” received at least 12 contracts, LLC “Medical Center M.T.K.” — 9, LLC “MK Medgrupp” — 6, and so on. The repetition of the same suppliers in the Prozorro system indicates a lack of real competition and possible “patronage” from the center’s leadership. A number of contracts were signed with little-known individual entrepreneurs who appear 2–3 times (Maryna Alistrenko, Olena Dibrivna, Iryna Korotka, Serhiy Shiyan, and others). These private contractors are directly or indirectly connected to the center’s officials. In practice, a pool of controlled entrepreneurs was created through which budget funds were siphoned off in small tranches, less noticeable to oversight.

Hovseiev would not have become an all-powerful director without strong backing in the authorities. His connections extend from the relevant KMDA department to academic circles and the deputy corps. He enjoyed the favor of Valentina Hinzburg — the former head of the city health department, with whom he collaborated and even published in professional journals.

Political patrons in the Kyiv City Council were no less important for Hovseiev. Although special relationships with deputies were not publicly declared, the nature of decisions speaks for itself. Deputies unanimously approved all moves favorable to the head of Maternity Hospital No. 5 — from contract renewals to the scandalous consolidation of institutions. Even within the capital’s medical community Hovseiev had authority: in 2023 he became head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology No. 1 at Bogomolets National Medical University.

In the 2023–2024 years the National Health Service of Ukraine conducted monitoring of maternity hospitals across the country, and the Fifth Kyiv Maternity Hospital set an anti-record. The inspection found a number of contract noncompliances: lack of necessary equipment, shortage of qualified staff, violations of newborn examination protocols, and so on. Among the biggest violators were hospitals that returned millions of hryvnias to the budget. Informally, Maternity Hospital No. 5 was called one of the leaders in the number and scale of identified violations.

Despite the problems recorded by the NHSU, Hovseiev remained in his position and even received a larger consolidated perinatal center under his authority.