Scandal surrounding food contracts: director of procurement department of Ministry of Defense Khmelnytsky was fired
Anastasia Radina, head of the anti-corruption committee of the Verkhovna Rada, announced this on Facebook, Censor.NET informs.
She reminds that she and her colleagues from the anti-corruption committee listened to the Minister of Defense regarding the procurement of food for the military.
Radina singled out several interim results:
1. According to the minister, food for the military is currently provided according to last year's contracts.
2. According to the understanding of the parliament, the document made public by journalists corresponds to an appendix to one of the new contracts of the Ministry of Defense, which have not yet entered into force. The Ministry of Defense reported that they had found errors in this and other contracts, and to correct them, inspections and price reviews are underway.
3. The Minister has no legal claims against the author of the journalistic investigation. Instead, the director of the procurement department of the Ministry of Defense Khmelnytsky, and the relevant deputy minister Shapovalov were dismissed.
4. Prices in contracts that have not yet entered into force and are under examination differ from different suppliers, but some prices really negatively differ from market prices. The Ministry explains this by the components of food services, in particular, transport services and the "allowance" for inflation.
"Does this mean that the issue is exhausted? No. The effort of the Ministry of Defense to fix contracts before they are paid for is a positive thing. We will check the results. However, this is not enough. It is time to change the approach to procurement.
The state should not spend time and money on examining prices after concluding agreements (and after a public scandal or indeed the discovery of a mistake). And it is possible and necessary to structure the purchase of goods in such a way that the prices still approach market prices, and do not increase at the expense of additional services and it is not yet known why," the message says.
The next step, according to Radina, should be the reform of the system of procurement of material support for the army. For example, the rejection of purchases in lots that combine 400 goods and services from their delivery and more will promote competition and help reduce the price.
