The Defence Procurement Agency of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine has announced the selection of a recruitment company through the simplified procurement mechanism in the Prozorro system to help select independent members of the agency's supervisory board.
"The announcement of a tender for the selection of a recruitment company is a step towards raising the corporate standards of the agency's management and control over its work," said Deputy Defence Minister Dmytro Klimenkov.
The supervisory board will consist of five members - three independent and two state representatives.
The supervisory board will be responsible for:
approval of the agency's draft strategy, financial and investment plans;
setting performance indicators for the director, monitoring their implementation and evaluating their performance;
review of the director's report and approval of measures based on the results of its consideration;
approval of candidates for deputy directors;
formulation of the anti-corruption policy;
appointment and termination of powers of the head of the internal audit department.
The procurement of the recruitment company's services will be carried out at the expense of the donor (funds from the UK-funded support programme of the Special Defence Advisor).
The procurement is announced exclusively for the purpose of announcing and submitting proposals in accordance with the Memorandum of Cooperation between the Defence Procurement Agency and NGO Foundation for Expert Support of Governance and Economic Development.
The Foundation will act as the customer of the services, select a recruitment company and conclude an agreement with it outside the electronic procurement system.
"Thus, the state enterprise of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, the Defence Procurement Agency, will not directly enter into an agreement with the recruitment company. The simplified procurement will be completed after the end of the proposal submission period," the ministry said.
They also added that the change of management and the launch of an independent supervisory board are necessary steps for a qualitative reboot of the agency.
"The purpose of this transformation is to build the work of the procurement agency that provides the Armed Forces with weapons in accordance with the best international standards of corporate governance," the ministry said.
The Defence Procurement Agency is responsible for purchasing weapons for the Armed Forces. The Ministry of Defence has recently reformed the procurement system for the military. It is now a two-tiered system, where the ministry sets procurement policy and quality control, while two agencies - the Defence Procurement Agency (weapons) and the State Logistics Operator (logistics property) - carry out direct procurement. Previously, these functions were concentrated directly in the ministry, which could lead to conflicts of interest in procurement.
Maryna Bezrukova headed the Defence Procurement Agency on 29 January 2024. At the same time, the Ministry of Defence also announced the creation of a supervisory board of professional and competent international managers.