Civil society, business and media united and took public procurement in Ukraine under control

Annually over 100 billion hryvnyas from the State budget of Ukraine overcomes public procurement process. Each third hryvnya out of this sum disappears in corruptively dangerous tenders. As a result of general drawbacks in the public tender system and absence of proper systematic control of its procedures, Ukraine loses approximately 30 billions hryvnyas annually. That is why over 40 Ukrainian non-government organizations, analytical centers, business organizations and media used their own right for civic monitoring of public procurement, which is directly provided by Article 9 of the Law of Ukraine "On public procurement" (N 2289-VI from 01.06.2010). Upon common consent, they created open civic Alliance "For the integrity of public procurement in Ukraine". Its public presentation was held in Kyiv on last Friday.

Over 40 Ukrainian non-governmental organizations, analytical centers, business organizations and media decided to use their right for civic monitoring directly and signed the joint Memorandum about founding of the Alliance "For the integrity of public procurement in Ukraine". Members of the Alliance agreed to dedicate their activity to encouragement of Ukrainian authorities to follow principles of integrity, competition, and openness in public procurement. "Ukraine loses from 30 to 60 billion hryvnyas annually in result of ineffective procurement. In fact, this money is taken from the pocket of each Ukrainian and goes to corrupt state officials. It means that there is a necessity of effective civic control over tenders proceeding in Ukraine. Moreover, this right is directly provided by Ukrainian legislation" - stated, while opening the presentation, Oleksiy KHMARA, the President of Creative Union "TORO" -Transparency International National Contact in Ukraine.

The Alliance decided to permanently inform the public about real price of ineffective public procurement, directly participate in reforming of tender legislation, and realize civil society monitoring of public procurement. "The problem of legal regulation of public procurement is still extremely urgent. This was directly emphasized by the European Union in its recent declaration; furthermore, EU stopped giving financial assistance to Ukraine because of the lack of transparency of Ukrainian tenders. So, civic influence on reformation of tender legislation is one of the key priorities for the Alliance" - emphasized Igor KOGUT, the Head of the Council of the Legal Initiatives Laboratory.

This opinion was supported by Volodymyr ZHOVTYAK, the Head of the Coordination Council of the All-Ukrainian Network of PLWH. He emphasized that the Network of PLWH during many years has been monitoring the prices for medication since the real price of corrupt tenders is the lives of the Network members. "We are monitoring tenders since 2004, but despite our achievements, the authorities are inventing new schemes of state funds embezzlement. That's why all of us need to make an effort for overcoming corruption in public procurement" - said Mr. Zhovtyak. "This year, approximately 1,5 millions USD will be saved due to civic monitoring over tender purchases of medications for HIV-positive people. Previously, this money was just disappearing. And this is the cost of curing of 7,000 patients. So, for us the value of this issue is lives of our relatives, friends, and acquaintances. And if our country organizes honest and transparent tenders, it will save lives of many people who need vitally important treatment," - addressed the audience Iryna BORUSHEK, Senior Counselor on Politics and Strategy of the All-Ukrainian Network of PLWH.

The opinion about possibility of complete refusal from public procurement because of its extreme corruptive nature was evaluated by Dmytro LYAPIN, the Head of the Ownership and Freedom Institute. According to him, this desire is utopian, which means that importance of following the principles of competition and integrity in Ukrainian procurement is very high. "We, as the Alliance, advocate transparency and free competitive environment. And this is real interest of business" - summarized D.Lyapin.

"A journalist without accurate information about tender abuses has almost no possibility to conduct high quality journalist investigation. So, journalists are expecting from the Alliance to exchange information and readiness of the members for consolidated actions in terms of civic pressure on the authorities" - represented opinion of the media Andriy MARUSOV, a journalist and public procurement expert.

That is why one of the first steps of the Alliance was publication of the Open petition to the Parliament concerning not permitting of approval of the draft law № 7532. According to it, majority of public procurement should not abide by tender legislation any more. The appeal was signed by over 80 non-governmental organizations from different regions of Ukraine. The next step of the Alliance will be initiating of the offers to draft law № 7532, which will manage to remove risks of corruption. 

According to the Deputy Head of the Department of public procurement and public order of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade Vladyslav ZUBAR, who participated in presentation, less than in a month State portal of public procurement will be reconstructed and will be more convenient and informative. The level of occurred content changes as well as accessibility and transparency of information about tenders in practice will be checked by the Alliance. In April, the Alliance will present the first results of the monitoring. 

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Information: The Civic Alliance "For the integrity of public procurement in Ukraine" is permanent union of non-government organizations, analytical centers, business organizations and individual members. The aim of the Alliance is facilitating general level of transparency and integrity of public procurement in Ukraine through implementation of its permanent civic society monitoring. The priorities of the Alliance's activity are:

• Facilitation of general civil society capacity to conduct effective monitoring over public procurement in Ukraine;
• Public pressure and civil society control over public procurement, particularly concerning following the principles of integrity, competition, and openness;
• Informing the public about the real costs of ineffective public procurement;
• Participation in reforming of tender legislation of Ukraine.

Attachments:

• TORO_Reliz_11.03.2011(UKR).pdf

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