Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The Department of Infrastructure and Public Amenities of the Chernivtsi City Council announced a procurement of services for over 17 million UAH, and local activists have questioned the appropriateness of such spending given the need to equip shelters.
On 30 October, the Department of Infrastructure and Public Amenities of the Chernivtsi City Council announced a tender for services to maintain the street and road network within the territory of the Chernivtsi city united territorial community. The expected procurement value is 17 million 83 thousand UAH.
Tender proposals will be accepted until 15 November. The procurement is currently at the proposal submission stage.
However, the tender announcement has caused dissatisfaction among part of the local community. In particular, Chernivtsi residents were angered by the allocation of a significant sum of budget funds for road maintenance and cleaning instead of equipping shelters.
Local activist Illia Rozhko drew attention to this in his post. He questioned the priority of such spending, considering the city’s needs for safety and proper equipping of protective structures.
Who is responsible for the procurement?
The Department of Infrastructure and Public Amenities of the Chernivtsi City Council is headed by Ihor Nikolenko. His name has already appeared multiple times in StopKor materials and other media publications.
Specifically, in June 2026 StopKor wrote about a criminal proceeding regarding alleged embezzlement of budget funds during the repair of a shelter. According to Suspilne Chernivtsi, it concerned about 300 thousand hryvnias. Nikolenko and his former deputy were named in the case, and the department head himself was notified of suspicion.
As noted in the StopKor article, the official disagreed with the suspicion and stated his intention to prove his innocence in court. He was suspended from his position during the investigation.
Earlier, media also reported possible informal payments from contractors in exchange for assistance in obtaining public contracts. These claims require proper verification and are not court-established facts.
The department headed by Nikolenko is one of the largest managers of funds for municipal procurements. According to data cited in the previous StopKor investigation, in just 2023–2025 years more than 3,1 billion UAH of budget funds passed through it.
Klychuk’s team and questions for the city authorities
Ihor Nikolenko works on the team of Chernivtsi mayor Roman Klychuk. The mayor himself has also previously been the subject of StopKor journalistic investigations.
In particular, the editorial team analyzed the business assets of the Klychuk family, his property status, possible conflicts of interest, and questions about the city council’s work. Journalists also tried to obtain comments from the mayor, but the city council reported that he did not wish to communicate with media representatives.
So the new tender for over 17 million UAH again draws attention to the department’s work and the city authorities’ approaches to budget allocation.
Who stands behind the companies connected to cleaning?
Another aspect worth noting is the private enterprises that operate in the management and cleaning sector.
According to Opendatabot data, Oleksandr Melnychuk is one of the ultimate beneficial owners of PE “Management Company No.1.” He owns 33% of the company. At the same time, this company owns 100% of two other enterprises — PE “Management Company No.2” and PE “Management Company No.3,” whose main activity is cleaning.
Melnychuk’s political past also attracts attention: according to the Chesno movement, in 2020 he ran for the Chernivtsi City Council from the Opposition Platform — For Life party, an organization whose activity is now banned in Ukraine.
At the same time, the mere existence of corporate links does not prove these companies’ involvement in the announced procurement. Whether they have an interest in the new tender can be assessed after the participants and results of the procedure appear.
Photo with Dubynskyi and a case worth 129 million
One episode from Illia Rozhko’s post attracts particular attention. The activist published a photo of Mayor Roman Klychuk with Leonid Dubynskyi — a businessman whose name appears in materials of U.S. law enforcement and Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies.
Leonid Dubynskyi and his brother Volodymyr are wanted by the U.S. FBI. As stated on the bureau’s official website, on 14 September 2012 a federal court in California issued arrest warrants for them after charges of mail fraud were filed. The case concerns the brothers’ alleged involvement in mortgage fraud related to real estate in California.
Business structures connected to the Dubynskyi brothers have previously been mentioned in investigative journalism regarding the receipt of large public contracts. In particular, the media wrote about Budinvest Engineering LLC, which received multi-million orders for road works and other infrastructure projects.
In addition, the case concerning alleged embezzlement of funds in the reconstruction of the water pipeline in Kamianske district of Dnipropetrovsk region has taken new developments. On 9 October 2026, NABU and SAP reported that they had sent the indictment to court.
According to the investigation, participants of the organized group in 2022–2023 years ensured the victory of a controlled company in the tender for the water pipeline reconstruction. Pipes were purchased through an intermediary company and resold to the municipal enterprise at a substantial markup. As a result, according to the investigation’s estimate, losses exceeded 129 million UAH.
The prosecutor did not name the organizer by name. At the same time, Suspilne Dnipro, citing its own sources, reported that it concerns Leonid Dubynskyi.
So will the tender for over 17 million UAH become yet another story raising questions about the allocation of budget funds in Chernivtsi? StopKor will monitor the procurement process, its participants and results, as well as the city authorities’ reaction.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "17 млн на прибирання замість укриттів: чому чернівчани обурені новим тендером мерії Клічука і до чого тут брати Дубинські?". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: StopKor.