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Defence Ministry’s decision to transfer 23 billion to SBGS is outright sabotage and rollback of legal procurement reform - Kaleniuk

Rustem Umerov

By deciding to transfer UAH 23 billion to the State Border Guard Service for the contracting of ammunition, the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine "signed its own complete failure".

This was written by Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of the "Anti-Corruption Action Centre", on her Facebook page, Censor.NET reports.

"The State Border Guard Service miraculously received a commercial offer from a foreign supplier of 'horns and hooves' to sell ammunition. It decided to send this offer to the Ministry of Defence. The MoD considered the proposal and, without hesitation, appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers to take away UAH 23 billion from the DPA and transfer it to the State Border Guard Service for contracting this particular "horns and hooves" intermediary. With this decision, the Ministry of Defence signed its own complete failure," Kaleniuk said.

She noted that the ministry has been reforming defence procurement for a year. According to him, Dmytro Klimenkov, a former business partner and close friend of Rustem Umerov, is in charge of this area.

"A proper head of the Defence Procurement Agency has been appointed. The Defence Procurement Agency has finally begun to eliminate intermediaries and 'horns and hooves' companies from state defence contracts. Our international partners began to see hope for change, and the Danes began to allocate money for the purchase of Ukrainian weapons through the Defence Procurement Agency. The Danes were followed by other countries. And then, in September, Umerov and Klimenkov began attempts to destroy the DPA. First, by liquidating it through a takeover by SLO and attempting to demolish the inconvenient head of the DPA. Then - by delaying the appointment of the Supervisory Board," says the AntAC director.

Finally, she recalls, Umerov and Klimenkov decide to allocate UAH 23 billion from the budget of the DPA to purchase ammunition for the Armed Forces through the State Border Guard Service.

At the same time, she said, the DPA already has contracts for the army's top priorities for this amount. And in the DPA, all suppliers are reliably checked for licences and the ability to supply critical ammunition to the army.

"What is the logic of this decision of the Ministry of Defence? And what is it if not outright sabotage and rollback of the lethal procurement reform?" - Kaleniuk emphasised.

As reported earlier, on 29 November, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted Resolution No. 1191-r, which allocated UAH 23 billion for the purchase of shells for the State Border Guard Service. The initiator was the Ministry of Defence.

The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine commented on the delegation of authority to purchase defence goods for the needs of the Ukrainian Defence Forces and called for no speculation on this topic and to avoid manipulation.