diff --git a/src/cpp/src/utils.cpp b/src/cpp/src/utils.cpp
index 75ee194b78..dc123d04c4 100644
--- a/src/cpp/src/utils.cpp
+++ b/src/cpp/src/utils.cpp
@@ -147,9 +147,9 @@ GenAIEnvManager::GenAIEnvManager(const std::string& path) {
     #ifdef _WIN32
     char* value = nullptr;
     size_t len = 0;
-    _dupenv_s(&value, &len, ov::genai::utils::get_tokenizers_env_name().c_str());
+    _dupenv_s(&value, &len, ov::genai::utils::get_tokenizers_env_name());
     if (value == nullptr)
-        _putenv_s(ov::genai::utils::get_tokenizers_env_name().c_str(), path.c_str());
+        _putenv_s(ov::genai::utils::get_tokenizers_env_name(), path.c_str());
     #else
     if (!getenv(ov::genai::utils::get_tokenizers_env_name()))
         setenv(ov::genai::utils::get_tokenizers_env_name(), path.c_str(), 1);
diff --git a/src/python/CMakeLists.txt b/src/python/CMakeLists.txt
index 5cfd890f47..7802561837 100644
--- a/src/python/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/python/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -15,7 +15,9 @@ if(NOT pybind11_POPULATED)
     add_subdirectory(${pybind11_SOURCE_DIR} ${pybind11_BINARY_DIR})
 endif()
 
-pybind11_add_module(py_generate_pipeline py_generate_pipeline.cpp)
+# to be able to use utils.hpp in pybind
+include_directories(${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/src/cpp/src/)
+pybind11_add_module(py_generate_pipeline py_generate_pipeline.cpp ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/src/cpp/src/utils.cpp)
 target_link_libraries(py_generate_pipeline PRIVATE openvino::genai nlohmann_json::nlohmann_json)
 set_target_properties(py_generate_pipeline PROPERTIES
     LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "$<1:${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/openvino_genai/>"
@@ -50,6 +52,3 @@ install(TARGETS genai py_generate_pipeline
     LIBRARY DESTINATION . COMPONENT wheel_genai
     RUNTIME DESTINATION . COMPONENT wheel_genai
     EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)
-
-# to be able to use utils.hpp in pybind
-include_directories(${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/src/cpp/src/)