In May 2014, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted amendments to the Law on Public Procurement, which significantly simplified procurement for law enforcement agencies. They were given the right to conduct purchase under a negotiated procedure, i.e., without an open tender. At the same time, the law did not provide the right to apply negotiation procedures to military units subordinated to law enforcement agencies. That is why a significant number of public procurements of military units are disrupted because they are held in open tenders, in which businesses do not want to take an active part.
The reluctance of business to participate in procurement has a negative impact on public procurement for the army because if less than two bidders participate in the bidding – bidding should be canceled. Low business motivation is associated with both corruption among customers and distrust of the state as a partner who does not fulfill signed contracts and does not pay bills.
At the same time, those competitions, which still end with the determination of the winner, last for months, which is unacceptable in war conditions. Procurement deadlines at the central level are much shorter, but they are also far from optimal. This is because even the negotiation procedure is carried out in the order that was developed for peacetime, and therefore is not adequate in wartime. After all, in the latter case, one of the key priorities is the speed of procurement, which the current procedure does not take into account.
The study analyzes the current state of public procurement in the field of defense; key stakeholders of the process are considered; the causes of systematic failure and delay of public procurement in the field of defense are investigated; the consequences of the problem, their scale and severity are considered; the state policy on the decision of a problem is analyzed; alternative solutions to the problem of disruption and delay of public procurement in the field of defense are offered.
The preparation and presentation of Policy Proposals is part of the project embodied by the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, supported by the USAID Rada Program: Responsible Accountable Democratic Assembly, implemented by the East Europe Foundation.
