The Ministry of Defense has the political will to put things in order in the procurement of food for the army, and Arsen Zhumadilov has the experience - expert
Kyiv • UNN
The expert believes that the Ministry of Defense has the political will to put things in order in the procurement of food for the army, and Arsen Zhumadilov has experience
The new team of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has the political will to put things in order in the procurement of food for the Ukrainian army, and the head of the State Enterprise "State Logistics Operator" has the necessary and positive experience to make it happen. This opinion was expressed by Hlib Kanevsky, head of the StateWatch analytical center, in an exclusive commentary to UNN.
According to him, the team of the newly created state enterprise has experience in weeding out intermediaries and involving direct producers in procurement.
"First, there is political will now, and second, there is Arsen Zhumadilov and his team, i.e. key specialists of the SE "Medzakupili" who were at the beginning of the creation of that medical procurement agency. The new team of the Ministry of Defense gave him full carte blanche as a professional to organize procurement, procedures, work with contractors, work with manufacturers and suppliers. In other words, it was for Zhumadilov and his team to establish an element of weeding out all sorts of padding, etc. They need to work directly with suppliers and manufacturers, and they are focused on this right now. The first procurement by the agency should take place in December," noted Hlib Kanevsky.
The expert called it a balanced decision that the state enterprise and the Department for Procurement Regulation of the Ministry of Defense will operate in parallel for a certain period.
"They made the right decision - not to tie up all loose ends, contracts and procurement, in one fell swoop and transfer them to a new agency, because such a decision would simply harm the Armed Forces. Therefore, we decided that the department would complete all the contracts and procurements it had started. Since December, the agencies have been gradually transferring food, fuel, ammunition, uniforms, etc. to the Ukrainian army. For me, this is a good sign that they are not cutting us off at the shoulder, but giving us time to adapt, which indicates that they have serious plans," the expert added.
Another factor of success, he noted, was the openness of the new Defense Ministry team.
"The third factor that makes me feel positive is that both Zhumadilov and Umerov's specialized deputy Dmitry Klymenkov are completely open to the public. At the first meeting, they explained the problems and what their plan was, and today they explained that there is an agency, people, and procedures. We agreed that in early January and February we would be shown the results of the tenders. They will be published in Prozorro anyway, but it means that we will be shown that the entire infrastructure is ready for this and that all decisions have been made. They will show us that the procurement plan has been approved, that people have been hired to organize it, and they will show us who these people are," Kanevsky said.
Kanevsky reminded that next year the State Logistics Operator has to conduct procurement for UAH 95 billion, and the key task is to get rid of any corruption risks, as Zhumadilov did when the state-owned Medzakupili was created.
"Until 2017, the Ministry of Health and its procurement were among the most corrupt in Ukraine. I know this for sure, because I was conducting journalistic and analytical investigations at that time, how the procurement of vaccines and other medicines for people with chronic diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis, etc. was disrupted year after year. And this has been going on since the days of Bohatyryova under Yanukovych. When we created the agency SE "Medzakupili" - Arsen Zhumadilov and his team - we forgot about corruption in the Ministry of Health. After 2017, there were no more scandals. On the contrary, remember back in the days of Covid, when Stepanov was trying to roll back the situation, he wanted to take advantage of the situation and return all procurement to the Ministry of Health. And at the same time, Zhumadilov was the first to write a statement to the NABU against Stepanov.
For me, these are the markers that Zhumadilov and his team deserve credit for the beginning. They have already proven themselves and have experience. This is not a typical story in Ukraine, when professionals with successful cases and no corruption background are appointed to positions. Compare this appointment with other appointments to other government agencies - people are appointed with no experience, no professional achievements, and dubious histories. This is the opposite case, so I believe in this story and hope that they will succeed," the expert summarized.
As a reminder,
Zhumadilov saidthat the new procurement strategy of the Defense Ministry envisages maximum involvement of national producers and abolition of discriminatory requirements in tenders.
