On September 17, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine supported in the first reading the Government’s draft law No. 11520 on a new version of the Law on Public Procurement. 289 MPs voted in favour. This document brings Ukraine’s legislation closer to EU standards and improves the public procurement process in the context of the country’s post-war recovery.
“We are grateful to MPs for supporting the Government’s draft law on public procurement in the first reading. The adoption of this law will introduce new effective tools that are already in place in the EU. This will allow us to increase the efficiency of spending public funds and make the procurement process even more transparent and competitive,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine.
According to her, this draft law will bring some proven effective tools for public procurement to the level of law. These include a mechanism for correcting mistakes, simplifying the mechanisms for submitting proposals, using an electronic auction and allowing participants to submit tender proposals with a price higher than the expected procurement cost.
According to Deputy Minister of Economy Nadiia Bihun, the new law will also allow more entrepreneurs to be involved in public procurement, as well as provide war veterans and people with disabilities with the opportunity to participate in public procurement on special terms.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us, together with our stakeholders and EU partners. Between the readings, we have to finalise this text of the law to balance all interests. Prozorro will become a system with a whole set of tools, not just the lowest price procurement (price only approach). In particular, the innovations will include tools that will make wider use of non-price evaluation criteria. New procurement procedures will be used, such as project competition, innovative partnerships, dynamic procurement systems, restricted tenders and others,” said Nadiia Bihun.
The main goal of the draft law is to continue adapting the procurement system to EU legislation, introduce flexible procurement tools for recurring needs, develop socially responsible business and provide preferences to veteran businesses and businesses that employ people with disabilities. (Government portal)