"Second procurement revolution:" Ukraine's Rada passes bill on amendments

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has passed bill No. 1076 to amend the law on public procurement and certain relevant legislative acts, in particular, to lower the level of thresholds for purchases that are not subject to regulations in the ProZorro public e-procurement system from UAH 200,000 (US$8,127) to UAH 50,000 ($2,032).

A total of 292 lawmakers backed the draft law on September 19, with the required minimum of 226 votes.

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Ukrainian parliamentarian Roksolana Pidlasa, reporting on the bill, said that the document makes purchases from "crony" companies more complicated, thus reducing corruption in the procurement sector.

"First, we suggest that thresholds for non-regulated purchases be reduced to UAH 50,000 and introduce mandatory reporting for all purchases in the ProZorro system. We propose that heads of budget-sustained organizations be personally responsible for violation of procurement legislation," she said.

"We offer real tools to handle 'appeals trolling' [by introducing a fee for appealing results of an e-tender or non-appealable procurements] and to automatically discard dumping prices [that are more than 40% lower than the average ones], as they often mean low quality. We are also fighting against overpriced purchases and counteracting disqualification of bidders on formal grounds," the MP added.

Pidlasa earlier called the bill "the second procurement revolution."

As UNIAN reported earlier, the No. 1076 bill passed its first reading on September 10.

On December 25, 2015, Ukraine's parliament passed the draft law on public procurement, which provides for the transition of all government customers and contractors to the electronic system. The law is mandatory for public procurements exceeding UAH 200,000, but not higher than the threshold amount established by the Cabinet of Ministers.