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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Schemes and scales of theft in public procurement
Because of corruption in public procurement Ukraine loses 150 billion hryvnias or almost 7% of the country’s gross domestic product, according to the story in the program Persha spalta of the First National Channel.
In particular, Persha spalta uncovered several corruption schemes in the public procurement system. For example, the price at which a state institution buys materials is often inflated, and part of the money is paid to the head of the state corporation or agency. Paying this “kickback” is the price of winning the tender.
A second variant is the sale of products of a state corporation to a private intermediary at prices below market. As a result, reselling it on the market at a higher price, part of the proceeds is returned to the official.
According to Elena Shcherban, a lawyer at the Center for Combating Corruption, currently there is no punishment or accountability for such violations.
"Only in our center for anti-corruption there are about fifty criminal cases in the field of procurement. And in two years not a single case from these fifty has been brought to trial," she noted.
However, a complete halt of state procurement could lead to negative consequences, as it did when the Ministry of Health suspended all tenders for drug purchases.
Experts see a way out of the current situation in improving the existing public procurement law and reducing the share of the state sector.
In an interview on the show, Deputy Minister of Economy Maksim Nefedov shared a recipe for changing public procurement schemes that should complicate life for corrupt officials.
In particular, Nefedov stated that the ministry will initiate limiting the ability to keep tender documents related to public procurement classified. He notes the problem with public access to information about tenders and the need for corresponding changes in the legislation.
Also, the deputy minister said that electronic tenders for public procurement are already being implemented.
"This is a pilot that is already working. In the future, after the law on ‘Electronic Public Procurement’ is adopted, we plan to scale this project," the official summarized.
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