In Ministry of Defense, person with ambitions and vision finds himself surrounded by elderly colonels and loses initiative, - Hudymenko
One of the most important and problematic factors is that the work in the Ministry of Defense is built without taking into account the true incentives of employees.
This is reported by Censor.NET with reference to an article by Yurii Hudymenko, Head of the Public Anti-Corruption Council at the Ministry of Defense, for Ukrainska Pravda.
Incentives of employees in the Ministry of Defense are not taken into account
"One employee's main incentive is to get a new rank, another's is to reach retirement, another's is to create something truly innovative for the country, and another's is to just sit out the war in the rear, not on the front. Everyone has their own incentives, and this is not something new - you just have to know how to use them. However, in the Ministry of Defense, it often happens that a person with ambition, vision and internal resources finds himself surrounded by elderly colonels, loses initiative, then desire, then the will to change, and then becomes a colonel himself," said the head of the Anti-Corruption Council.
He added that at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, "when businessmen, top managers, lawyers, logisticians, and IT specialists joined the army, there were hopes that they would be incorporated into the work of the ministry, replace old staff and bring something new and modern to the work of the most important ministry in times of war." However, this chance and potential was largely lost.
"Much of what the ministry's representatives boast about at international forums was created by representatives of this category of personnel - relatively young, with experience in business or international activities, and who had no connection to the army before the start of the full-scale war. One can only imagine how grandiose the changes could have been if this category had received comprehensive support and protection from direct or indirect pressure from the old staff of the Ministry. But this did not happen," Hudymenko emphasized.
Employees of the Ministry of Procurement know that they will have problems if they purchase goods at a price that is even a kopeck higher than another offer
"Another important factor that cannot be ignored when talking about incentives is the factor of external pressure, which is especially noticeable in the procurement sector. To put it as crudely and primitively as possible, the personnel working in procurement for the army understand very clearly that they are unlikely to have problems due to delays in deliveries, poor quality of goods for the army, or simply because of the lack of such deliveries. However, they are guaranteed to have problems if they purchase a product - even a mop or a shell - at a price that is at least a penny higher than another offer, even if the more expensive product has significantly better quality, greater functionality or shorter delivery time," Hudymenko said.
He cites the procurement sector as an example, "where cases in which a contract is concluded at the lowest price, but the delivery time and quality of the goods are significantly worse than those of competitors, have become a system."
"The reason for this is not only a potential scandal on social media or a fight in the office of the management. The main thing is that every official in this sphere knows that he or she is walking between Scylla and Charybdis every day - accusations of either causing damage to the state or criminal inaction. This general imbalance of incentives for employees leads to the primitivization of decision-making at all levels, further bloating of the staff, the growing role of office intrigues, and as a result, to less and less efficiency and more and more irresponsibility. The army with its problems and needs is becoming extremely distant and unreal, the war is just a word, and the process for the sake of the result is a process for the sake of the process," explains the head of the council at the ministry.
