A scandal is brewing in Chernivtsi regarding the renovation of a city square. The Department of Infrastructure and Urban Development of the Chernivtsi City Council has initiated an official investigation after fragments of granite tombstones were discovered on the steps of Philharmonic Square.
The incident became public thanks to the activism of local deputies. Yana Brus and Alexey Kaspruk published photos clearly showing the outlines of engravings that appeared on the surface of the slabs following recent repair work and rain. The visual defects were promptly removed by specialized services that ground down the stone; however, the fact of using ritual materials as construction raw material caused a wide resonance.
Technical details and chronology of works
To understand the scale of the situation, one must refer to the technical parameters of the object. According to data from the electronic public procurement system, current repairs worth 190 thousand hryvnias were carried out at Philharmonic Square. A key feature of the technical assignment was the absence of items regarding the purchase and delivery of new granite materials. The contracting organization was instructed to dismantle, level the base, and lay back the existing stone pavement.
The staircase that became the epicenter of the scandal was built about 20 years ago, in the early 2000s. During the recent work, workers used exclusively the slabs that were already in the foundation of the structure. This means that the material that caused the scandal was used two decades ago.
Positions of the parties: from cost optimization to hidden defects
The situation has given rise to two diametrically opposite views on what happened.
Representatives of the deputy corps, in particular Yana Brus, qualified the incident as improper fulfillment of contractual obligations. The deputy put forward a worrying assumption that the contractor might have purchased used ritual materials in order to optimize costs, violating ethical and legal norms.
In turn, the head of the contracting organization, Oleg Kerdei of SPABUD LLC, categorically refuted the version of purchasing new materials. According to him, the presence of images on the back of the old granite was not detected during installation due to a dense layer of dirt. The outline of the engravings appeared only after natural precipitation cleaned the surface of the stone.
Legal consequences and investigation
The Chernivtsi City Council has already created a special commission to study in detail the archival design and cost documentation of the period of the initial construction of the square. The main goal of the investigation is to identify the officials and contracting organizations that allowed the use of substandard materials when laying the object in the early 2000s.
The legal context of the situation is extremely serious. According to the Law of Ukraine "On Burial and Funeral Affairs", desecration or illegal use of elements of burial places entails criminal liability under Article 297 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Until the specialized commission completes its work and the law enforcement authorities issue an official conclusion, the final legal qualification of the actions of the participants in the process remains uncertain.
