On June 19, the project Civic Monitoring of Public Procurement during the Wartime and in the Post-War Period was presented, which, with the financial support of the EU, will be implemented by Transparency International Ukraine and the NGO Civic Control Platform until November 2026.
The goal of the project is to increase the efficiency and transparency of public procurement and reconstruction projects through expert analysis and civic control in wartime and during post-war reconstruction.
Within the project, the organizations will:
- analyze procurement legislation, propose improvements, and identify corruption risks in it;
- develop and promote the BI Prozorro analytical module of public procurement;
- monitor procurement and reconstruction projects for violations.
In addition, to strengthen the ability of society to control the activities on the ground, a subgrants competition for regional CSOs will be held. The selection is to start approximately in the autumn of 2024.
“The project was initiated in 2023, having in mind how critical it is to procure efficiently and transparently for the defence and the recovery of the country. Engagement of civil society in core policies areas is really important for us and for government partners as well,” stated Henrik Huitfeldt, Head of the Public Finance, Business Support and Social Policies Section at the EU Delegation to Ukraine.
“The greatest achievement of Prozorro is the creation of an ecosystem in which civil society at some point played a decisive role. Today, it is an important element of the procurement system. We thank our European partners for supporting the development of public initiatives,” said Nadiya Bihun, Deputy Minister of Economy.
Within the project, organizations will operate to help strengthen the public procurement field and rectify weak points. After its presentation, a discussion was held on the challenges in procurement.
In particular, Nadiya Bihun and Valerii Sherhin, Head of the Public Procurement Department of the Ministry of Economy, spoke about certain areas of the government strategy for public procurement reform and the weak points that it solves.
The most critical problems in public procurement, especially in the construction sector, were also covered together with public specialists. Among them are the inflated prices for construction materials, the lack of participants, the poor quality of design and tender documentation.
“We are moving beyond sole procurement because it does not function in a vacuum, and we begin to dive deeper into the nuances of construction rules. Many deficiencies arise not at tenders but much earlier, in particular at the stage of developing design and estimate documentation. I am pleased that our colleagues from other civil society organizations are also ready for a more comprehensive approach—this will help us develop quality changes together and recommend them to the government,” Ivan Lakhtionov, Deputy Executive Director of TI Ukraine for Innovation Projects, is convinced.
The recording of the project presentation and discussion can be viewed at the link.
The event was held with the financial support of the European Union.
