Green Leaf has already written that funds allocated to Odesa as a subvention under Cabinet of Ministers Order No. 534-r of June 16, 2023 were used during the war to dig up the city from one end to the other — from Bahrytskoho Street via Fontanska Road–Akademichna–Frantsuzkyi Boulevard–to Haharina Avenue. In total, UAH 340 million of UAH 475 million was directed to construction of a new branch of trunk water-supply networks for a high-rise commercial development. In other words, this part of the project was purely development-oriented from the outset. Many city residents had many questions about the priority of such work during a bloody war. Why is excavation being carried out hastily, without organizing detours, accounting for vehicle traffic, or considering the historic value of the cobblestone surface of Frantsuzkyi Boulevard? Why, in the end, should this work be financed from the state budget? Another UAH 135 million was directed to construction of a kindergarten at Pestelia Lane in Odesa and major repairs to Building G for the cardiology department of Municipal Non-Profit Enterprise City Clinical Hospital No. 11 at Akademika Vorobiova Street in Odesa. The city budget allocated part of the funds as co-financing.

In general, Green Leaf is very interested in the principle by which the state allocated a subvention to Odesa during wartime for an openly commercial project. A commercial road-construction corporation associated with Trukhanov and Angert is using public funds to expand the customer base of the commercial enterprise Infox LLC, owned by Mykola Zlochevskyi, including for the development of new sites for commercial high-rise construction. The formally social component of this subvention was provided by the kindergarten construction project and the cardiology renovation — apparently as cover.

Funds returned to the state budget

However, there is a serious problem. According to the Unified Web Portal for the Use of Public Funds, by the end of 2023 none of the listed facilities had been fully financed. The status of the contracts can be seen at the following links: 1. Construction of trunk water-supply networks: Phase 1; Phase 2; Phase 3; Phase 4 2. Construction of a kindergarten at 4 Pestelia Lane, Odesa 3. Major repairs to Building G for the cardiology department of Municipal Non-Profit Enterprise City Clinical Hospital No. 11 at 5 Akademika Vorobiova Street, Odesa

As it turned out, the city authorities, represented by the Capital Construction Department, failed to use the allocated funds, and at the end of 2023 more than UAH 191 million was returned to the state budget. The response of the Odesa City Council Finance Department to Green Leaf’s information request is shown below.

This raises a number of questions:1. Will officials be held responsible for negligence that resulted in unused funds being returned to the state budget?2. From what sources will financing of these projects continue in 2024 to replace the more than UAH 191 million that was lost? 3. How will engineering protection of the historic cobblestone roadway of Frantsuzkyi Boulevard be organized during the works? How will conservation be arranged if funding is unavailable?

In any event, Green Leaf will keep monitoring this issue. First, many questions remain for those who decided to allocate the funds “from above.” Second, it will be interesting to see how far Hennadii Leonidovych can stretch after the arrangements were cancelled. And third, trenches on Frantsuzkyi Boulevard during the autumn-winter period without drainage or conservation measures are already an offense in themselves.