The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine failed to collect the necessary 226 votes to amend the law “On Public Procurement” and certain other legislative acts. Draft law 8265 was supported in the first reading by 166 MPs. It was submitted to the Parliament by the President of Ukraine on 13 April 2018 as “urgent” and later postponed multiple times.
The Ukrainian chapter of the global anti-corruption network Transparency International has already urged MPs to support the draft law. Adoption of the draft law was supposed to serve as a step to reduce corruption, increase transparency in public procurement and save budget funds, among other things. The proposed changes were supported by all stakeholders.
As a reminder, here is what draft law 8265 was supposed to change:
1. Regulate “pre-threshold” procurement.
The Law of Ukriane “On Public Procurement” does not regulate the so-called “pre-threshold” amounts (up to UAH 200,000 for goods and services and up to UAH 1.5 million for works for regular procuring entities). The draft law would introduce the notion of “simplified” procurement. Procuring entities would have to handle “simplified” procurement through ProZorro for amounts over UAH 50,000. The procedure is similar to the open bidding procedure, but the timescales are shorter and there is no prerequisite of at least two participants.
2. Enable businesses to fix technical errors within a day.
It is a common situation that participants make technical errors in tender proposals out of carelessness. Such proposals are subsequently rejected, procuring entities are forced to agree to higher prices, and the participants with the best offer lose their chance to conclude an agreement.
3. Enable complaints through an online system. 
It would reduce the workload of the AMCU Board and increase the number of reviewed complaints.
4. Increased responsibility for violations
For instance, violations that would be added to the list include groundless application of the negotiations procedure for procurement, groundless disqualification of a participant, groundless selection of the winner.
5. Electronic catalogs would be introduced
In procurement for a pre-threshold amount, procuring entities would be able to choose the respective product from electronic catalogs.