The goal of the reform
Increasing the transparency, competitiveness and professionalism of procurement, as well as gradually bringing Ukraine's public procurement system into compliance with European Union standards.
Reform in figures and facts
Since 2015, public procurement reform has been carried out in Ukraine, as well as the gradual bringing of the Ukrainian legislation to the norms of the European Union acquis for the implementation of the Association Agreement Between the European Union and its Member States, of the One Part, and Ukraine, of the Other Part.
The functions of the authorized body regulating the sphere of public procurement are assigned to the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine. The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine is designated as the appeal body. Control in the field is carried out by the State Audit Service of Ukraine, the Accounting Chamber and the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine within the limits of the powers defined by the legislation.
In 2016, the Law of Ukraine "On Public Procurement" was enacted, which ensured the beginning of the transition of procurement in Ukraine to an electronic format through the electronic procurement system Prozorro.
During the operation of the electronic procurement system, there is an annual increase in the number of procurements from 900,000 in 2017 to more than
5 million procurements in 2021 and, accordingly, the number of concluded contracts from UAH 472 billion in 2017 to UAH 965 billion in 2021.
However, with the beginning of the full-scale armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and the introduction of the legal regime of martial law, the situation in the field of procurement has changed somewhat, and in 2022,
2.8 million procurements were made and contracts worth UAH 484 billion were concluded.
Please note that together with public organizations and businesses, an analytics module has been launched into public access, which allows for interactive real-time analysis of information on public procurement: http://bi.prozorro.org/.
At the same time, as part of international activities in the field of public procurement, it should be noted:
1) On May 18, 2016, Ukraine became a full party to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement, which provided Ukrainian companies with access to the international public procurement markets of 48 countries, the annual volume of which is about 1.7 trillion. USD.
2) As part of the work of the WTO Committee on Public Procurement in February 2019, Ukraine was designated as the chairing country of the Work Program on collection and reporting of statistical data. It should be noted that Ukraine headed the WTO Work Program for the first time. The predecessor country that chaired this Program was the USA. The work of this Program is directed to the formation of proposals for a certain unification of the form of submission of annual statistical reports by the member countries of the Agreement on State Procurement, for further processing of the information by the specialized Committee of the WTO.
International recognition and awards received for the development of the Ukrainian electronic public procurement system Prozorro:
- World Procurement Awards 2016 in the "Public Sector" nomination;
- Open Government Awards 2016;
- ProZorro is included in the recommended electronic procurement models of the EBRD;
- ProZorro was selected as a showcase & learning project of the world initiative Open Contracting Partnership Davos Awards 2017 in the nomination "Trust of the Future";
- Fair Sourcing Awards (FSA) 2017 in the "Master" nomination;
- Based on the results of the evaluation of the functioning of the Prozorro electronic public procurement system in 2017, the World Bank recognized that it can use this platform for procurement of goods, services and works in Ukraine;
- Transparent Public Procurement Rating, The most transparent public procurement system 2020.
What does the reform entail?
The Association Agreement between Ukraine, on the one hand, and the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community and their member states, on the other hand (hereinafter - the Association Agreement), establishes Ukraine's obligations to bring the public procurement system into compliance with standards EU.
Thus, by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated February 24, 2016 No. 175-r, the Strategy for Reforming the Public Procurement System (“road map”) and a plan of measures for the implementation of the Strategy for Reforming the Public Procurement System (“road map”) were approved, which provided for 5 stages of sequential adaptation of Ukrainian legislation to EU standards during 2015-2022.
What has already changed thanks to the reform?
Public procurement has been transferred from "paper" to "electronic" format and is carried out using the electronic procurement system. And for procurements that are carried out without using the electronic procurement system, it is necessary to publish a report on the procurement contract in the electronic procurement system.
Thus, all information about procurement with public funds is freely available in the electronic procurement system.
The introduction of e-procurement contributed to increasing the transparency of the procurement process, expanded business opportunities to participate in public procurement, and enabled both regulatory bodies and the public to observe the process of public procurement.
Since April 2020, the version of the Law of Ukraine "On Public Procurement" has been updated, which provides, in particular:
- transition from tender committees to authorized persons for the professionalization of procurement;
- improvement of the appeal mechanism;
- introduction of simplified procurement;
- the functioning of new tools to improve procurement efficiency (electronic catalogues);
- the possibility for the bidder to correct inconsistencies in the tender offer within twenty-four hours after they are discovered by the contracting authority;
- expansion of the list of grounds for liability for violations of legislation in the field of procurement, etc.
In order to develop the electronic procurement system, an automatic exchange of information with the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs and Public Organizations, the State Register of Medicinal Products, the State Tax Service of Ukraine, the State Treasury Service of Ukraine and the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption has been ensured.
Normatively and technically, the State Audit Service and its territorial bodies provide for the possibility of conducting procurement monitoring in the electronic procurement system, including using automatic risk indicators, the use of which makes it possible to automatically select procurement procedures that contain signs of violations of legislation in the field of public procurement.
Along with this, at the central level, centralized procurement organizations are defined, which conduct procurements in the interests of contracting authorities in accordance with the Law of Ukraine "On Public Procurement":
- state institution "Professional Procurement";
- state enterprise "Medical Procurement of Ukraine";
- state enterprise "Ukrainian special systems".
In addition, seven centralized procurement organizations have been identified at the regional level.
In order to increase the level of professionalization of subjects in the field of public procurement, the following was developed:
- professional standard for the occupation "Public Procurement Specialist";
- an exemplary provision on an authorized person;
- procedure for organizing testing of authorized persons;
- a list of test questions for confirmation by an authorized person of the level of possession of the necessary (basic) knowledge in the field of public procurement with answer options.
At the same time, in the framework of increasing the professionalization of public procurement specialists who already work in the field and for new specialists, the Authorized Body in cooperation with the European Union Project "Support to the Public Procurement Reform in Ukraine" is working on the development of an online course.
Strategic goals
- harmonization of Ukrainian legislation in the field of public procurement with the relevant requirements of EU directives and the WTO Government Procurement Agreement;
- creation and development of the electronic procurement system taking into account EU requirements and standards, best international practice;
- development of the system of professional training of public procurement specialists and professionalization in the field of public procurement;
- international cooperation in the field of public procurement and improvement of Ukraine's image in the international arena as a state with a modern system of public procurement.
Responsible Body for the implementation of the reform
Ministry of Economy of Ukraine
Additional materials (materials by topic, links to information resources)
The web portal of the Authorized Procurement Body: http://prozorro.gov.ua/