Often, in the whirlwind of important daily tasks, we forget to pause and analyze what we have actually done that is useful and important. The anniversary of the project is a great opportunity to sum up our interim results. We present the key accomplishments in various focus areas of the project over the past year to record what has already been achieved.
Civic procurement monitoring
We nicknamed our department of public procurement specialists “5%.” It searches for violations and reports them to procuring entities, supervisory bodies, and law enforcement officers. That’s because 5% of criminal proceedings that were opened in 2023 due to violations in the field of procurement were registered following our appeals.
Since the beginning of last November, 37 criminal proceedings have been opened following the requests of our specialists. In addition, their letters also led to a decrease in the cost of procurement transactions and the cancellation of some. Thus, as a result, we helped save more than UAH 1.5 billion of budget funds over the year.
Our senior analyst Yaroslav Pylypenko considers the rapid growth of our expertise in the field of construction procurement to be our greatest achievement. Last year, it was a new topic for our experts. So, we engaged external consultants and learned a lot. Nowadays, we find the highest number of potential overpayments in construction-related tenders, including in the construction of shelters.
Our studies
The best studies, in our opinion, are those that cause real change. Last year, we found that the short deadline for submitting bids for construction tenders negatively affected competition and recommended extending the deadline for submitting bids for procurement of works from 7 days to 15. The government heeded our recommendations and introduced appropriate changes to the resolution regulating procurement rules for the period of martial law.
Now, we are promoting the idea to oblige procuring entities to publish the files necessary for estimate calculations in the formats of specialized estimate programs based on our other studies and advocate the publication of service acceptance certificates within expensive construction procurement transactions.
Many of our findings based on the study of the procurement field in 2023 echoed the recommendations of the European Commission included in the latest EU Enlargement Report on Ukraine.
Analytical tools
Last year, we paid most attention to two focus areas within improving the BI Prozorro public analytics module—simplifying its operation and new sheets at the request of certain stakeholders.
At the beginning of this year, we have finally unified the functions and appearance of the modules for the last two years and for all years. In addition, they operate much faster. Although the one for all the years still takes a little longer to load.
In summer, at the request of large-scale procuring entities, Active Lots and Events in Lots sheets were created. They help managers to monitor important events in the procurement of their subordinate authorized persons to respond in time if necessary or to be sure that everything is going according to their plan. They can be useful for other users, for example, journalists who consistently monitor the procurement of certain procuring entities.
This year, together with the Ministry of Economy, the first version of the Procuring Entity Index was presented—a tool that, with the help of various groups of indicators, allows for a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of procurement. By the way, we are already preparing the first update based on the users’ feedback.
And of course, we continued to help users master the BI module: we published and updated guides, provided consultations, and conducted training. One of the largest trainings was conducted for those having great influence on changes in public procurement rules: SE Prozorro, SE Professional Procurement, the KSE, DOT (State Logistics Operator), and Ukrainian specialized systems. It lasted almost two weeks.
Legislation and development of the sphere
Of course, the most important thing in this direction that covered few months of our work is the improvement of the draft new law on public procurement. Our Head Ivan Lakhtionov and legal advisor Anna Kuts participated in the working group that worked out amendments to the draft law after it was approved in the first reading. We’ll have to see if all our suggestions have been taken into account when the second reading version is published. We still have to wait for the European Commission’s feedback on the interim version.
What’s important is that in late spring, we helped to improve the electronic appeal of procurement to the AMCU. Back then, we joined the development of the structure of a new electronic complaint form, which was launched in Prozorro in early 2024. It had a complex architecture and a number of inconsistencies with the legislation. Our Anna, together with the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine and the State Enterprise Prozorro, figured out how to fix this.
In addition, together with the KSE, we developed a Methodology for Determining the Cost of Direct Procurement Transactions for Above-Threshold Amounts. This is a document that contains a clear step-by-step guide that will help procuring entities determine the optimal cost of procurement items for goods, services, and works and separately for current repair services. It will also cover template forms for requesting and analyzing commercial and contractual price offers and other useful appendices.
In the summer, we submitted a number of proposals to the Temporary Investigative Commission of the Verkhovna Rada, which was established to investigate potential violations in socially important procurement transactions during martial law. The Commission appealed to DOZORRO and other stakeholders for recommendations on how to prevent corruption offenses in the field of procurement. Our proposals were added to the conclusions of the Commission’s report and recommended for implementation. They concerned the publication of estimates and service acceptance certificates in construction tenders, rules for determining the expected value, electronic contracts, improvement of monitoring, etc.
Together with the Digital Transformation Activity and the KSE, we signed a memorandum of cooperation with the State Audit Service. Over the next 4 years, we are going to help the body to improve business processes, automate them, and improve the professionalism of auditors. By the way, right now, we are looking for a lawyer and a business analyst who will help analyze the business processes of the body and reflect them in the terms of reference for the E-Auditor system.
We have not forgotten about the Accounting Chamber. The new law on its reform was adopted the other day. We advocated the update of the competitive procedure to select members of the body, enhance its financial and political independence, and increase the efficiency of the processes. A significant part of our recommendations was embodied in the final version of the law. Some issues, for example, the delineation of powers with the State Audit Service, have yet to be resolved.
Analytics
We also continued to research procurement in various areas and write about it for the media so that people know how their taxes are spent. Procurement is not always about violations and overpayments, but also about meeting the needs of the state. Although sometimes it is about violations and overpayments. We recommend reading:
Vague Figures: What the Largest Cities Spend on Supporting Ukraine’s Armed Forces
How Much Does the Square Meter of Recovery Cost?
How Shelters for Schools and Kindergartens Are Procured in Kyiv?
