"Schemes" journalists have obtained access to all annual contracts for the supply of products for the army, which the Ministry of Defense concluded in December 2022. They were replaced by short-term, three-month deals with significantly lower prices after the February revelations, but the suppliersʼ margins remained high, investigators informed.
An analysis of these contracts allows us to see how inflated the prices of the contractors, who were chosen outside the competition, were at first, and how much they changed after the media scandal.
In the December contracts, the suppliers set the price from 17.7 to 27 hryvnias per kilogram of potatoes. After the scandal, some firms lowered the price to UAH 12.6 per kg, while some left it unchanged.
The suppliers themselves bought potatoes for 7.6-10.8 UAH per kg in December and January. That is, the margin on the most popular product remains at the level of 40-50% even after the price reduction.
The situation is similar with apples: the difference between the purchase and sale price is significant.
Cabbage is sold at 16.2-26.2 UAH per kg by the army even after the price reduction, although the suppliers themselves bought it at 8.5-14.4 UAH per kg.
Suppliers buy eggs at a price of 5.4 to 6.3 hryvnias per piece, and sell them at 8-9. The margin is approximately 30-40%.
"Schemes" emphasize that all calculations in this investigation are made taking into account value added tax.
At the request of the Ministry of Defense, the names of the suppliers are not published, because it "creates threats to national security."
The department also explains that the price of suppliers for "food service" contains additional risks.
"If, conditionally, 100 kg of apples or potatoes have spoiled, rotted, the warehouse was hit by an enemy projectile and all the products were destroyed, the supplier will replace the entire amount of products without receiving additional payment," they noted.
At the same time, the Ministry of Defense does not rule out that after the work of the Interdepartmental Working Group, they may switch to another model of food organization in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
- At the beginning of January, a scandal broke out around the Ministry of Defense due to the purchase of food products at allegedly inflated prices several times over (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.
- Due to purchases for the army, three officials of the Ministry of Defense received suspicions, and personnel renewal was carried out in the department.