Defense Ministry official Arsen Zhumadilov has been accused of the failure of the procurement reform
Talks regarding the reform of the state procurement system of the Ministry of Defense have remained conversations, says political expert Mykhailo Schneider.
It is about the announced transformations, which were to be provided by a member of the team of Defense Minister Rusty Umerov, Arsen Zhumadilov, Ukrainian News reported.
"Several months have passed, and we can already see that, in fact, little has changed," Schneider writes.
He explains: instead of the Department of State Procurement of the Ministry of Defense, two new state enterprises were created, which were supposed to operate independently - SE Defense Procurement Agency and SE State Rear Operator. At the same time, the Department itself, which was repeatedly criticized, continued to function.
"Until recently, both enterprises were headed by the same person - Zhumadilov. Only at the end of January, the Defense Procurement Agency was headed by another person. And all this time, independent companies acted in complete dependence on the person of the Minister of Defense," says Schneider.
In addition, he adds, 0.4% of the amount of contracts that go to the maintenance of the state-owned enterprise stimulate Zhumadilov and his people to purchase as much of the expensive product as possible. With the appearance of scheme , the cost of purchases increased and entailed additional costs of the state in the amount of UAH 1.5 billion.
"Recent examples: the State Rear Operator has issued tenders for the purchase of two expensive televisions and several expensive microphones, and the Defense Procurement Agency is buying body armor at a price more than three months ago, and it's the same vests and the same supplier." - informs the expert.
A new round of the scandal is connected with tenders for the supply of food for the army. It was assumed that such supply would be divided into goods and services (where one supplier prepares the food and the other delivers), but in fact the division did not take place.
"That is, the motivational component of the procurement system will be turned upside down, and they called all this beauty with loud words - reforms and the fight against corruption ," says Schneider.
The expert expresses fears that later the commission of intermediaries may grow even more and from 0.4% to reach a more significant indicator.
