At least UAH 501.2 million was spent this year on tenders “among related parties”

This year, the state and local communities have already carried out public procurements worth billions of hryvnias. Although the very idea of tenders is meant to prevent abuses and corruption risks, some procurements are still won by companies connected to each other through owners or ultimate beneficial owners. The law allows such participation only if the level of related ownership does not exceed 25%.

We track these connections on the Related Parties Check in Public Procurement page online.

In some cases, this may be a coincidence or a corporate structure that formally does not violate the law. However, 32 such procurements worth UAH 501.2 million go beyond that: Opendatabot identified direct related-party connections between participants and the winner at a level of 25% or more, which constitutes a gross violation of the Law of Ukraine “On Public Procurement.”

The largest of these procurements is a tender worth UAH 468.3 million. In the tender announced by Ukrnafta, the participants were BK Ukrburservice and Spetsmekhservis, whose owners also share another company — Naftohazekolohiia. Formally, this looks like competition between two different bidders, but in reality they may be elements of the same business group, effectively running the tender “within the family.”

The second-largest problematic procurement amounts to UAH 10.4 million. In this case, Spetskran and VP KHEAZ were found to be related, as both businesses have the same co-owner.

The third-largest procurement with illegal connections totals UAH 4.7 million. Only two private enterprises — Poltavske and Boryspilske — participated in the tender, and they share the same owner.

It is also worth noting that there are 19 more procurements worth UAH 256.3 million that were divided into lots. In these procedures, companies with confirmed connections participated in different lots within the same tender. Formally, this does not violate the law, since each lot is considered a separate procurement item. However, in substance the situation looks similar: related companies operate simultaneously within one procurement, creating additional risks for genuine competition.

Why is this a problem at all, and what does the law say? ​

Ukrainian legislation requires contracting authorities to reject bids if the participants are related parties. If the procuring entity sees that bidders have common owners, are under common control, or are connected through family or official relationships, it must deny such participants access to the procedure and reject their tender bids, even during martial law. Simplified procurement procedures are allowed only for small amounts: up to UAH 100,000 for goods and services, up to UAH 200,000 for current repairs, up to UAH 1.5 million for works, as well as in cases of defense and classified procurements or urgent needs.

However, checking all participants for related-party connections is difficult and time-consuming: it requires manually reviewing registry data, analyzing ownership structures, and cross-checking beneficiaries and founders.

That is why Opendatabot created a dedicated service that automatically searches for links between procurement participants. It allows users to quickly check and see whether companies are related, helping them comply with legal requirements by preventing the admission of bidders who may violate competition rules. The tool is available online and is specifically tailored to the needs of those working with public procurement.

This automated check is especially important for large procurements, where tens or hundreds of millions of hryvnias are at stake. Just a few clicks allow a contracting authority to see whether a tender is turning into a “family contract.” Because every such case is not only a violation of the law, but also a direct blow to trust in the public procurement system as a whole.