Ministry of Defence reported that unannounced inspections of food suppliers to military units are ongoing.
Deputy Defence Minister Vitaliy Polovenko inspected the supply of food to military units in the southeast of the country. This is the second unscheduled visit in a week - on 19 January, Vitaliy Polovenko and a member of the Anti-Corruption Council, Hennadiy Kryvosheya, inspected the warehouses of some military units in the east.
"The situation repeats. Some of the companies we signed contracts with at the end of 2023 are unable to fulfil their obligations. We are talking about supplying of quality products and delivery on time," said Polovenko.
It is noted that in the future, procurement will be carried out by the State Enterprise "State Logistics Operator" (SLO) to prevent such a situation from happening again.
"All the nuances and peculiarities of military units should be taken into account. That is why we will pass the information from such inspections to the State Logistics Operator, as they will be the ones to conduct food tenders in the future. Each new supplier must be ready to be responsive. Our military should forget about quality problems and shortages," said Polovenko.
In both cases, all recorded violations will be reported in the form of relevant acts. The Ministry of Defence will impose penalties on companies that fail to meet delivery deadlines for non-compliance with the terms of the contract.
As a result of the previous visit, the Ministry of Defence changed the supplier of some military units.
A new agency, the State Logistics Operator, started operating in Ukraine in December 2023 to deal with the needs of the Armed Forces. In this way, the Ministry of Defence wants to avoid interruptions in the supply of food to the Armed Forces and prevent corruption. The new agency will analyse prices, study the market, and purchase the necessary food.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence is auditing all contracts with companies that may be affiliated with the Hrynkevych family. It has been preliminarily established that the companies have disrupted supplies to the Armed Forces under 23 contracts, with preliminary losses of over UAH 1.5 billion.