Kharkiv entrepreneurs from the AMCU “black list” again receive millions from MIA tenders

Kharkiv company wins license plate tenders again despite scandals with the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine.

The owners of Svitlofor LLC, a Kharkiv company, have again won tenders for the production of car license plates for the Main Service Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, despite previous issues with the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU). As the international detective agency Absolution Leaks discovered in its investigation, this company utilizes a shell company to participate in tenders.

Since its establishment in 2018, Svitlofor has concluded contracts for a total amount exceeding 1 billion hryvnia. During these years, the company has been fined by the AMCU for manipulating tender results, but has refused to pay the fine.

The AMCU recently announced the imposition of a fine of 16.64 million hryvnia on the company for concerted actions within the framework of the tender for state license plates. After that, in the summer of 2024, Svitlofor lost the court case regarding this decision, but there are suspicions that the company is being prepared for bankruptcy. It was transferred to a citizen of Uzbekistan, and similar actions were taken with the Avtomotoznak company, which also changed its management to a person from Uzbekistan.

Following the issues with Svitlofor, a new company emerged on the market: LLC L.P. Production. This company was registered immediately after the scandals began and has already won several tenders for the supply of license plates. Its founders are associated with Kharkiv lawyer Oleksandr Charychansky, whose business has close ties to local politics.

Research has shown that L.P. Production and Svitlofor have many similarities, including contractors and equipment, which raises suspicions of ambiguous agreements between them. The presence of identical equipment and familiar personnel also raises questions about the legality of their activities.

Moreover, in tenders held between cycles, L.P. Production offered prices significantly lower than those of its competitors, which raises questions about the market’s competitiveness. Repeated cancellations of tenders and inconsistencies in procedures raised further questions about the customer’s practices and the transparency of the bidding process.

Based on the facts gathered during the investigation, experts believe that the management of the State Procurement Service within the Ministry of Internal Affairs is aware of potential corruption in the procurement process, which warrants attention from law enforcement agencies.