The State Rear Operator (DOT) is facing pressure from unscrupulous suppliers who are trying to discredit the procurement reform and extend old contracts through lawsuits and information attacks.
This was stated by DOT General Director Arsen Zhumadilov at the briefing.
"Right now, the action played out by the food barons for the last two months is culminating. At stake is the return of transparency and public trust before spending about 45 billion hryvnias every year. We have already succeeded a lot. We have already saved approximately 3 billion hryvnias, concluding contracts for 11.5 billion hryvnias. We are on the path of building another capable institution capable of performing state functions in the interests of society at a high professional level. It would be surprising if the beneficiaries of the schemes welcomed the reform. Itʼs not just strange, itʼs suspicious," Zhumadilov noted.
The day before, one of the largest suppliers of food for the Ministry of Defense — the company "Atomservice" — sent a letter to the Minister Rustem Umyerov, his deputy Dmytro Klimenkov and the head of DOT Arsen Zhumadilov, threatening not to participate in the next tenders if the conditions of participation in them are not changed.
The suppliers are categorically not satisfied that the applications directly from the parts will now be collected by DOT, and not by them themselves.
"Because it is thanks to the direct receipt of applications from parts that they manage to steal money. This happens due to the signing of fake invoices for goods that did not exist, but which are then paid for by the Ministry of Defense," noted a member of the Anti-Corruption Council under the Ministry of Defense Tetyana Nikolayenko.
On March 5, the Kyiv District Administrative Court rejected a lawsuit challenging the requirements of DOT for the purchase of food products for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Among other things, the plaintiff contested the requirements regarding the suppliersʼ obligation to register tax invoices in a timely manner and to provide the customer with the opportunity to check the storage conditions of food products that will be supplied to military personnel.
After that, all participants canceled their applications for all lots, DOT told Babel.
"Spam" of lawsuits
According to the new procurement principle of the Ministry of Defense, two state-owned enterprises have been created to provide the Armed Forces of Ukraine with everything they need — the State Rear Operator (DOT) and the Defense Procurement Agency (DPA), which work according to modern corporate standards and are guided by the approaches practiced in NATO.
DOT introduced a number of changes in the system of providing food to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in order to make it more transparent and reduce corruption risks. This is not entirely to the liking of companies that used to be suppliers and did not always deliver high-quality products. Lawsuits have now been filed challenging these rules.
The state operator of the rear says that on March 5, they contested the tenth lawsuit in the last month on the tender conditions for food purchases.
"LLC ʼCross Primeʼ filed a lawsuit and tried to disrupt the procurement by contesting the tender conditions prescribed in the draft contract of DOT. At the same time, among the challenged requirements are, for example, the obligation of suppliers to register tax invoices in a timely manner and to provide the customer with the opportunity to check the storage conditions of food products that will be supplied to military personnel. At the same time, LLC ʼCross Primeʼ challenged even those requirements that are identical to the existing requirements in the contracts of the Ministry of Defense, and some norms in DOT contracts are even milder," DOT explained.
In order for the military not to be left without food from April 1, DOT is considering the option of concluding a contract within the limits of current legislation without using the ProZorro electronic system.