President signed Law to establish ProZorro system in defense sphere procurements

President Petro Poroshenko signed Law of Ukraine on Peculiarities of Procurement of Goods and Services for Ensuring Defense Needs.

The law was signed at the meeting with volunteers of the Ministry of Defense Tetiana Domanova, Artur Pereverziev, Pavlo Kyriyenko, Anastasiya Kovaliova and Vadym Malorod. The meeting was also attended by Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Andriy Taranov and Minister of Defense Stepan Poltorak.

“It is a real joy today. Months of struggle for legislative settlement and reformation of defensive procurements are finally over,” the President said.

The Head of State expressed gratitude to the entire team of volunteers in the Ministry of Defense – authors of the law: “You had my full support and support of the Defense Minister”.

“This law finally regulates the procedure of transparent mechanism of public procurement. It is an extremely important step towards the enhancement of the country’s defense capacity. On the other hand, this law is a powerful anti-corruption step,” the President noted.

The Head of State emphasized that the law was an optimal decision combining specifics of defense procurement with specificity, speed and transparency, which means accountability of spending to society.

Petro Poroshenko noted that the ProZorro system would have a final registration in the Ministry of Defense. At the same time he noted that e-tenders first presented in the Presidential Administration last year would become mandatory at the level of law for everyone.

In his turn, Minister of Defense Stepan Poltorak expressed belief that the Law would provide an opportunity to carry out procurements more efficiently. In 2015, the ProZorro system saved UAH 200 million. Since the beginning of 2016, UAH 400 million have already been saved only in the procurement of food products.

“Today, almost all procurements of the Ministry of Defense are conducted via the ProZorro system. I am glad that the experiment of the Ministry of Defense has become a program of actions for the Government,” Stepan Poltorak said.

The President drew attention to the acceptance of delivery of goods. “Quality is very important. We should deprive dishonorable suppliers of an opportunity to engage in dumping, win tenders and supply flawed goods,” the President said and emphasized the necessity of increasing liability of such suppliers up to criminal one.

In her turn, Tetiana Domanova noted that the adoption of the law had been extremely difficult, because the Parliament had not listened. The voting has been failed six times. There have been attempts to exclude it from the agenda. The volunteer expressed gratitude to the President, Minister of Defense and all patriotic people’s deputies who supported the law and defended it. “I think that with such a great amount of people we will build true, independent and free Ukraine,” she said.

In conclusion, the President noted that “everything is done to eliminate the opportunity of uncompetitive supply in the defense sphere”. “It concerns not only the AFU, but also the Ministry of the Interior, Security Service, National Guard, Border Guards and all other security units,” Petro Poroshenko emphasized.

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