Ukraine plans to adopt bills that will abolish fines for arms suppliers who delay deliveries to the front. This was announced by the head of the Anti-Corruption Center (ACC) Vitaliy Shabunin on his Facebook. Bills No. 12202 and No. 6013 provide for the abolition of fines for suppliers if the delay in deliveries lasts more than 30 days.
Shabunin noted that these bills are being lobbied in the interests of large suppliers, such as Spetstechnoexport and Lviv Arsenal, which have failed to fulfill their obligations to supply weapons and ammunition worth billions of hryvnias. For example, Spetstechnoexport failed to deliver weapons worth 6 billion hryvnias, and Lviv Arsenal was supposed to withdraw 1.5 billion from the Ministry of Defense, but the ammunition was never transferred.
Under current law, if a supplier fails to fulfill the terms of a contract within 30 days, it is subject to a fine of 7% of the contract value. This mechanism encourages suppliers to fulfill their obligations on time. However, new bills, if adopted, could destroy this mechanism, which, according to Shabunin, will only benefit individual companies that have not fulfilled their obligations.
Such legislative initiatives raise serious questions about the transparency of defense procurement and possible corruption risks.
