Umerov’s decisions regarding personnel changes at Defense Procurement Agency harm Ukraine’s image and should be canceled - GMF
Yesterday's decisions of Defense Minister Rustem Umerov regarding personnel changes in the Defense Procurement Agency should be canceled, as they negatively affect the image of Ukraine.
This was reported by GMF, Censor.NET informs.
In particular, this concerns the dismissal of the head of the Defense Industry Agency Maryna Bezrukova, who is "sincerely applauded by international partners from NATO to the G7 for reducing the number of intermediaries in arms procurement in Ukraine."
"This sordid story is a mistake, not a feature of Ukraine's generally inspiring story of public procurement and corporate governance reform... Ukraine has reformed its corporate governance to the point where most state-owned companies are unrecognizable from their bloated and unaccountable predecessors. Kyiv is a world leader in developing transparent public procurement systems, including the award-winning ProZorro platform. This path of reform is driven by a huge demand in Ukrainian society.
However, the current obstacle to this reform progress is significant. In addition to undermining the institutional integrity of the Healthcare Agency, the power grab by firing leading reformers and changing supervisory boards is hampering governance reform efforts across Kyiv and damaging Ukraine's international reputation," the publication emphasizes.
It is also recalled that journalist Yurii Nikolov, commenting on Umerov's decision yesterday, claimed that Umerov had illegally exceeded his authority, and the Anti-Corruption Action Center (AntAC) called on President Zelenskyy to fire Umerov.
The publication also elaborates on the story of the scandalous procurement of the Defense Ministry, which began during the time of Umerov's predecessor, Oleksiy Reznikov.
It is also noted that after that, the Defense Ministry immediately professionalized procurement management with more transparent pricing mechanisms, increased competition among suppliers, manufacturer inspections and other due diligence, and improved resource management systems, which brought Ukraine's defense sector in line with international standards.
"But Bezrukova's boldest step was to conclude direct contracts with manufacturers, eliminating legions of shadowy and corrupt intermediaries who enrich themselves in the notoriously opaque and fragmented international arms market. Under her leadership, the Defense Industry has reduced the share of intermediaries in procurement from 81% to 12%. To send an unmistakable message that corruption will no longer be tolerated in Ukrainian defense procurement, Bezrukova hired Artem Sytnyk, the strongly independent former head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), as her deputy," the publication recalls.
"NATO member defense ministries see a well-run defense industry as a reliable way to effectively help Kyiv buy weapons, as well as to capitalize Ukraine's defense industry and consolidate a successful reform project. Because it does not have to pay intermediaries, the SDO also saves billions of hryvnias by awarding contracts at lower prices than the ministry has done in the past-savings that it uses to increase the number of weapons for Ukraine's soldiers. All of these benefits are all the more important against a backdrop of heightened risks to the political sustainability of international sources of non-denominational military aid, including the largest, the United States," the report continues.
Conclusions
To ensure the reform of defense procurement and strengthen institutional capacity, the paper believes that Umerov 's Friday decisions should be reversed and three further political steps should be taken to complete the reform of the defense procurement system. The Defense Procurement Agency and the State Defense Enterprise should be provided with the independence, capacity, transparency, and sustainability they need to fulfill their important functions. The MoD should extend the contract with the head of the DOH in accordance with the recommendations of the supervisory board. The second step involves revising the charters of the Healthcare and DOT. Recent amendments to these charters, which undermined the independence of supervisory boards and allowed interference in the work of the agencies, should be canceled.
"The third and most important step is to develop and adopt a special law on defense procurement. This law should institutionalize the independence of the Defense Procurement Agency and the State Defense Enterprise, provide for the mandatory presence of supervisory boards with clearly defined functions, and establish transparent procedures for selecting their members and agency heads," the publication concludes.
Earlier, the Supervisory Board of the Defense Procurement Agency of the Ministry of Defense signed an additional agreement to the contract with the current director of the Defense Procurement Agency for a period of 1 year.
However, later, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umerov stated that the Defense Procurement Agency had failed in its work over the past six months and announced the dismissal of his deputy Dmytro Klimenkov, and the change of the Defense Procurement Agency's management.
