Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Deposit Guarantee Fund has spent more than 5.5 million hryvnias on its own PR. This is evidenced by the analysis of the public procurement system, UNN writes.
Thus, in July 2022, the Fund holds a tender for advertising and marketing services. On September 9, the DGF concludes a contract worth UAH 600 thousand for the promotion of the Fund's information and analytical materials in the online media with Roman Yuriyovych Peresunko.
In September of the same year, the DGF spends a small amount of money on the development of the annual report design - only UAH 8 thousand 999. However, also in September, the DGF buys advertising and marketing services, on September 12, 2022, from the individual entrepreneur "IVAN PETRENKO" for the amount of UAH 679,500, interestingly, the expected cost of services was much higher - UAH 1 million 350 thousand. Of course, there were no questions about the abnormally low price. In fact, the subject of the procurement was the promotion of the Foundation on social media.
On November 28, 2022, the DGF concludes an agreement for services for the promotion of informational videos about the Deposit Guarantee System on television, the amount of the agreement is UAH 2,270,000. Agreement was concluded with VIPMEDIA LLC.
In 2023, the DGF will spend even more money on its own PR.
Thus, on April 20, 2023, the Fund purchased the services of targeted promotion of information materials and the page of the Deposit Guarantee Fund for Financial Literacy "FINCULT" on Facebook and Instagram and the YouTube video hosting service for the amount of UAH 505 thousand from the individual entrepreneur "IVAN PETRENKO". By the way, targeted promotion is a regular advertising display of posts to a selected audience, i.e., the Foundation actually spent money on advertising its project on social media, as evidenced by the appendix to of the contract, according to which the contractor had to report how much it spent on post promotion and the cost of the display.
And on May 30, the Fund concludes an agreement for the purchase of the Services of targeted promotion of information materials and the page of the Deposit Guarantee Fund on the social network Facebook and YouTube video hosting from the already mentioned individual entrepreneur "IVAN PETRENKO". The cost of the service is UAH 270 thousand.
Let's return to the agreement of April 20.
FinCult is an educational project on financial literacy launched by the DGF. It is worth remembering that the DGF spent more than half a million hryvnias on its promotion. The project's Facebook page has 27 followers, but the average number of likes on posts does not exceed a dozen, and there are no comments or reposts. On Instagram , FinCult has only 851 followers. The situation with likes is about the same as on Facebook, and there are no comments either. The project is also available on Telegram , where it has 164 subscribers , and on YouTube (708 subscribers). Some of the project's videos on video hosting have garnered tens of thousands of views, but in a few years.
As for the Foundation's own pages, which also received considerable funds in 2023, the posts on the Facebook page also receive an average of 10 likes and usually do not generate discussion. The situation is even worse on Instagram: where 3-5 likes are the norm. The Foundation's YouTube channel, which was registered in 2012, has managed to collect 1.45 thousand subscribers, and most videos get an average of a hundred views.
The question arises: how did the Foundation spend a total of 775 thousand hryvnias on promoting its posts and videos during the war?
On April 3, 2023, institution enters into an agreement for the Services of printing (production) of advertising and information products with the symbols of the Deposit Guarantee Fund with Petrina Natalia Viktorivna, a private entrepreneur. The amount of the contract is UAH 219 ,600. For this money, the DGF received 300 business diaries with its symbols and ballpoint pens, as well as 40 power banks with the DGF's symbols on them. You will agree that this is a very "necessary" expenditure of budget funds during the war.
In December 2023, the DGF purchased a similar service from Vid A do Ya Printing House LLC for almost UAH 50 thousand. According to the terms of the tender , the printing house was to supply the DGF with eco-notebooks, paper bags, ballpoint pens - all with the Fund's symbols - and information leaflets.
The Foundation is also concerned with tracking its image in the information space. Thus, in February, it purchased services for providing online access to the database of information sources of the Internet news monitoring system "InfoStream" "or analog" from LLC "Socionet" for the amount of UAH 30 thousand, although a few days before it had concluded a contract with the same company for the amount of UAH 112 thousand for the purchase of services for monitoring the information space.
But even this was not enough for the Fund. In 2023, the Fund procures services for the promotion of information and analytical materials of the Deposit Guarantee Fund in the online media (contract of November 2023). Once again, this service, now worth UAH 724 thousand, is provided by Ivan Petrenko, an individual entrepreneur who has been repeatedly noticed in the Fund's tenders. In August 2023, the same individual entrepreneur produced a video for the Foundation worth UAH 99 thousand.
The DGF also procures other similar services , in particular, information and consulting services on "Effective Business Communications and Public Speaking" and services for the organization and technical support of online broadcasting of press events of the Deposit Guarantee Fund - however, according to the procurement system, no contracts have been signed for these tenders. But only under the concluded contracts, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the DGF has spent more than UAH 5.5 million on its own PR and promotion.