The long-suffering bill that aims to make military procurement transparent has once again been postponed from implementation until at least 2022.
In a controversial move decried by anti-graft watchdogs, the government issued a decree extending the old, more corruption-prone procurement procedures until the end of 2021, despite the fact that the new system must have entered full force on March 31.
This happened as far back as June 2 and went unnoticed until recently.
The paramount bill on military procurement was signed into law last August. It is considered vital to Ukraine’s large NATO-style defense reform aimed at eliminating endemic corruption in the sector amid Russia’s ongoing war in Donbas.
Besides, according to the Kyiv-based expert group Project to Reform Defense Procurement, the decree also brings back into practice regulations envisaging “unfair pricing with no competition and old product launch model.”
“Attempts to bring the old procurement system back from the dead is dangerous to timely and transparent maintenance of Ukraine’s military,” the watchdog said on June 29.
Experts tied the controversial step with Oleg Uruskiy, the deputy prime minister and minister for strategic industries in charge of the country’s state-run defense production sector. The official has been widely criticized for failing to implement all necessary statutory instruments, with several deadlines missed through 2020 and 2021, and launch new defense procurement.
Moreover, as experts noted, the decree overrules a fully-empowered law, in stark contrast to the country’s Constitution.
“If Deputy Prime Minister Uruskiy is not capable of following the law of Ukraine, he must resign,” said lawmaker Yegor Cherniev of 244-seat faction Servant of the People.
“In fact, Uruskiy failed the anti-graft reform of defense procurement and drove us back on our way to NATO… As far as I understand, Uruskiy can not develop the statutory framework to start implementing the bill, so he initiated its unconstitutional postponement.”
In its statement published on July 1, the Ministry for Strategic Industries repelled the accusations, saying that the decree does not kill the new procurement, but rather allows that all old contracts and deals be completed.
“There was no cancellation of any law and it is not possible,” the ministry said. “The decree is just recommitting some provisions…necessary to approve general provisions of the state defense contracting in 2021.”
