The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has developed a plan to partially open state procurement to the public. In particular, they will publish part of the information on their own website.
This was announced by the Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov.
“The main priority for the Ministry of Defense is and will be ensuring the continuity and quality of food. This is our duty. But we must find a balance with societyʼs desire to see transparent processes and control them,” he noted.
According to him, together with lawmakers, we have already agreed to return public control over the procurement of tangible property, fuel and food by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. The food system will also be changed.
Reznikov has already given orders to analyze product prices, shorten contract terms and develop new approaches to transition to a new menu system.
In addition, the Ministry of Defense introduced an internal rule of checking all prices with the register of the Ministry of Economy and market prices. The number and date of conclusion of the contracts, the price per unit and links to the public technical conditions of procurement will be published on the departmentʼs website.
- On January 21, ZN.ua journalists accused the Ministry of Defense of purchasing food products at several times inflated prices. The article stated that prices for products are three times higher than retail prices in Kyiv supermarkets. The agreement worth 13.16 billion hryvnias was concluded on December 23, 2022. It is about providing food to military units stationed in the Poltava, Sumy, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv and Cherkasy regions.
- On January 23, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov personally responded to these criticisms, in particular, he explained that the Ministry of Defense does not buy individual products, but a complex service — food supply. The Minister explained that the prices of the eight suppliers are different, as well as in supermarket chains, because each one has its own specialization and own production of a certain group of goods. Product prices are analyzed by special expert institutions.
- On January 24, it became known that Deputy Minister of Defense Vyacheslav Shapovalov, who was responsible for the rear support of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, resigned. Subsequently, the Minister of Defense Reznikov announced changes in the nutrition of the Armed Forces of Ukraine — switching to flexible but unified menu system.