From December 2023, products for the Ukrainian military will be purchased by the State Rear Operator.
This was reported by the Deputy Minister of Defense Dmytro Klimenkov at a briefing at the Military Media Center, as "Ukrinform" reports.
Also, from November 1, the Ministry of Defense announced tenders for the purchase of food for the Armed Forces. There will be changes in the rules of these auctions to avoid disruptions in food supply and corruption. The auctions will now last not six months, but three months — from January to March 2024.
"From December of this year, the agency "State rear operator" will deal with all purchases of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. This is our new tool in procurement, which will completely take over the entire functionality," Dmytro Klimenkov added.
The agency will analyze the market, prices, communicate with suppliers directly, evaluate them and check their performance.
The Ministry of Defense expects the government to adopt two resolutions, after which "de jure, the rear procurement agency will be 100% operational."
- At the beginning of January 2023, a scandal broke out around the Ministry of Defense due to the purchase of food products at allegedly inflated prices several times (in particular, eggs at 17 hryvnias per piece ). Against this background, the Ministry of Defense decided to publish information about procurement contracts on its own website, as well as compare prices with market prices.
- Because of purchases for the army, three officials of the Ministry of Defense received suspicions, the department updated its personnel. After that, Oleksiy Reznikov approved the composition of the Public Anti-Corruption Council. From April 23, the "Prozorro" system began to display information on non-armed defense purchases, including data on food services.
- On September 6, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine appointed Rustem Umyerov as the new Minister of Defense. The previous one, Reznikov, was dismissed by the parliament the day before.