The Defence Procurement Agency continues to cooperate with a defence plant in Dnipropetrovsk Region, whose CEO is suspected of supplying low-quality mines to the Armed Forces, said Arsen Zhumadilov, head of the Defence Procurement Agency.
According to him, the detention of the plant's CEO did not have a critical impact on production.
‘This plant is our counterparty, but not the main one, because we have diversified our supply, as we have at least four other suppliers who supply large volumes, so this plant is not our largest supplier,’ Zhumadilov explained.
In terms of quality, he says the situation at the plant is different now, as the manufacturer has rebuilt its processes. The court will deal with everything else.
As to why the Defence Procurement Agency continues to work with this plant, Zhumadilov explained that the agency works with all key Ukrainian manufacturers, and the fact that several batches of the product range were of poor quality is not a sufficient reason to terminate contracts with the production.
‘We are a key arms procurement agency and if we do not contract a defence enterprise, it will simply close. If there are no very serious reasons for closure, then mistakes should be worked on and it should work,’ explained the head of the Defence Procurement Agency.
- Last year in November, the Ministry of Defence announced that it was investigating the causes of the abnormal triggering of 120mm mines.
- Prior to that, Dzerkalo Tyzhnya reported, citing sources, that at least 100,000 mines had been recalled. In particular, journalist Yuriy Nikolov said the reason for the problem was that ‘Rustem Umerov's subordinates, who were supposed to control the quality of mines from Oleksandr Kamyshyn's subordinates, were simply hiding the manufacturer's problems’.
- On 29 April, the Prosecutor General's Office announced that suspicions had been served on the director general of the defence plant, his first deputy, the head of the quality control group of the military representative office of the Ministry of Defence, and the former head of the representative office.